Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon.

The uncrewed New Glenn rocket took off at 2:03 a.m. EST from Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Blue Origin said.

Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin postponed the inaugural launch of its new rocket early Monday, after running into technical problems. Blue Origin had planned to attempt to blast off its New Glenn rocket from a site in Florida.

New Glenn is capable of carrying 50 tons (45 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO). SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which also features reusable first stage boosters, can lift around 70 tons (64 metric tons) to LEO.

Blue Origin did not immediately set a new launch date, saying the team needed more time to resolve the problem.

For the first time, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has put a payload in orbit using its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket.

Florida’s sky briefly lit up during the night as one of a handful of big new American-made rockets took flight. It was the first time a new space company achieved orbit on the first launch attempt.

The first-ever launch of the New Glenn represents a major milestone for the Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin spaceflight company has now officially entered the orbital launch market and heavy-lift space industry, setting it up to compete with the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.