Blue Origin latest: Big win for Jeff Bezos as rocket booster lands back on Earth after Mars mission launch

That's all for now of our live coverage of Blue Origin's launch (and landing) of the New Glenn rocket.

Here's a quick summary of this evening's events, but scroll down through the page to catch up on the launch as it happened.

Next stop, Mars

Jeff Bezos's company was hoping it would be third time lucky tonight after aborted attempts to get the rocket into space on Sunday and yesterday.

This evening's launch was not without delays either.

The countdown was paused twice before the New Glenn rocket eventually launched at 8.55pm UK time.

It was carrying two NASA satellites, named Blue and Gold, as part of its Escapade programme to study Mars's atmosphere.

The New Glenn booster successfully landed back on a platform in the Atlantic, a feat only achieved previously by Elon Musk's SpaceX - marking a new chapter in the billionaire space race.

Meanwhile, NASA's satellites successfully deployed and are now on their way to Mars. 

Our science correspondent Thomas Moore says the successful launch (and landing) means competition between Bezos and Musk "just got combustible". 

Here are the latest pictures from Florida, where New Glenn launched this evening after two nervy delays.

Tonight was Blue Origin's third attempt at getting the rocket up since Sunday.

Both of NASA's satellites, Blue and Gold, have successfully separated and deployed.

This means Blue Origin's mission tonight has been an overwhelming success for Jeff Bezos's company.

The Escapade NASA satellites are now on their way towards Mars.

They're expected to reach orbit some time around September 2027.

"We are two for two on today's mission... a historic day for New Glenn and Blue Origin," the company's stream hosts say.

By Thomas Moore, science correspondent 

There's a new space race. And this one is for billionaires.

The rocket company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has launched its first two space probes, both of them heading to Mars.

It means the world's second-richest man is going head-to-head with the wannabe trillionaire Elon Musk.

Jeff Bezos is a long way behind Musk's SpaceX.

So far, his Blue Origin company has been focused on space tourism with the smaller New Shepard rocket. 

Remember Katy Perry singing What A Wonderful World in space? That was on Bezos's rocket.

Watch Perry's journey into space here...

But Blue Origin's second-ever launch of the much bigger New Glenn rocket, with the bragging rights of carrying two NASA spacecraft, means the competition between the two tech bros just got combustible.

The spacecraft - part of the NASA Escapade mission - will study the magnetic field around Mars.

And it was a textbook launch for the rocket.

But there was more. 

For the first time, mission control managed to land the booster stage housing the main engines and fuel tanks on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

That means Bezos has a reusable rocket, just like Musk.

Reusability matters. It has dramatically brought down the cost of putting satellites in orbit from about £48,000 a kilogram with the space shuttle to just over £1,000 with the SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket.

Competition with New Glenn could bring down the cost even more.

The two companies will be bidding for the same contracts, not just from space agencies and government defence departments, but also from private satellite companies.

And Blue Origin hasn't given up hope of shuttling astronauts from lunar orbit down to the surface of the moon.

That was supposed to be a job for SpaceX. 

But Sean Duffy, the current NASA chief, recently said the company was taking too long to get its massive Starship ready and threatened to reopen the contract.

It's not just mega rockets that Bezos and Musk are vying over.

Blue Origin has begun launching its Project Kuiper broadband satellites to take on Musk's Starlink.

They could be lucrative, not just rolling out mobile and internet coverage around the world, but also securing an alternative route to vulnerable undersea cables for high-speed communications.

Space is the new tech frontier. And it will make rich men even richer.

Watch Moore's analysis below...

Blue Origin is over the Moon with the successful landing of the New Glenn rocket.

The company's teams cheered the booster all the way down to the Jacklyn, 375 miles out at sea in the Atlantic.

The company had never managed the feat before with a rocket so large. 

Meanwhile, NASA's satellites are continuing their journey into space.

We have around six or seven minutes until the satellites, named Blue and Gold, deploy and head onwards to the red planet.

A New Glenn booster has re-entered the atmosphere and landed back on Earth.

On the way down, it engaged its re-entry burners, while its previous payload of NASA satellites headed into space.

This is further than it managed in its first mission in January.

As our science correspondent Thomas Moore explained in our 17.30 post, this is a big win for Blue Origin.

Not only does it save them a lot of money (not having to rebuild the rocket booster) it proves it can compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX, the only other company to achieve this feat so far.

After two delays, the launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket went ahead around nine minutes ago.

Here's a reminder of the planned timeline of the mission...

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is now heading to space.

It went through booster phase before hitting stage two ignition.

The rocket will head down to the landing platform as the satellites head to Mars.

On the livestream (watch along at the top of the page), Blue Origin's team keeps saying they're getting "good data" and cheers from the assembled crowd indicate that all's going well.

The rocket is travelling at 2.8km a second.

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket has taken off.

After a nervy pause at t-minus 20 seconds, the rescheduled launch went ahead after a second pause.

The rocket will now be heading out over the Atlantic, where it will split into its two stages.

The booster will head towards the lander in the Atlantic, while the NASA satellites head into space - and hopefully onwards to Mars.

Crowds gathered in Florida cheered as the rocket went supersonic.