In the world of private space companies, Elon Musk's SpaceX is king. To date, SpaceX has launched close to 400 of their Falcon 9 orbital rockets as well as 10 Falcon Heavy rockets, and their Starship program is making rapid progress.

This marked the first time that Blue Origin, a space company founded by Jeff Bezos more than two decades ago, has integrated and fired an orbital rocket stage. After the test, Blue Origin said it is still tracking toward a November launch of the New Glenn rocket.

A pair of NASA spacecraft know as the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) to be launched to Mars by a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket. ESCAPADE will study how the "solar wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic environment and how this interaction drives the planet’s atmospheric escape,

Blue Origin carried out a hotfire test for its New Glenn rocket second stage on Monday (Sept. 23) as the company moves toward the huge vehicle's debut flight.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket hit a significant milestone this week, completing its first second-stage hot fire test that validates the interactions between the subsystems, its two BE-3U engines, and the ground control systems.

Before the first launch of Blue Origin's heavy-lift rocket New Glenn in November, a hotfire test of the second rocket stage took place.