Privately owned Blue Origin has achieved its goal—a decade in the making—of becoming an orbital launch player, even as it failed to recover its first-stage booster in the ambitious inaugural flight of its New Glenn rocket on its NG-1 mission.

Blue Origin LLC’s new flagship rocket lifted off for the first time and successfully reached orbit in a crucial test of the Jeff Bezos-backed firm’s ability to challenge SpaceX’s ironclad grip on the launch market.

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket blasts off and reaches orbit on its initial flight. More Videos. How to make new friends using Reddit, Instagram, more