Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's company Blue Origin is poised to launch its first orbital rocket next week, marking a pivotal moment in the commercial space race currently dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Beachside spectators have monitored the rocket and Launch Complex 36 pre-launch activities on the horizon for weeks, including a Dec. 27 hot-fire test.

Standing over 320 feet tall, it dwarfs the SpaceX's 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket, featuring a 23-foot diameter payload fairing designed to handle massive payloads — twice the volume of typical commercial rockets in its class.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is headed to space after being given the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA on Friday issued Blue Origin a Part 450 commercial space launch license, authorizing the first launch of its reusable rocket, New Glenn.

The company, owned by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, also received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to launch the vehicle to orbit.

Nearly 25 years after Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin, the company is finally poised to send its first rocket to orbit. New Glenn could lift off as early as next week.

The NG-1 mission will carry a prototype of Blue Ring, a Department of Defense-funded spacecraft envisioned as a versatile satellite deployment platform.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin is poised to launch its first orbital rocket this week, marking a pivotal moment in the commercial space race currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The NG-1 mission will carry a prototype of Blue Ring, a Defense Department-funded spacecraft envisioned as a versatile satellite deployment platform, which will remain on board the rocket's second stage for the six-hour test flight.

New Glenn, a massive heavy-payload Blue Origin rocket, had its launch window moved back at least a couple of days.