The Blue Origin rocket is due to take off from a site in Cape Canaveral in Florida soon.

Standing at 30 storeys (320ft/98m) tall, Jeff Bezos' teams hope that the rocket will compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX project.

We're expecting the launch to begin in the next half an hour or so, although there has already been a delay to the planned launch - with the latest time given by Blue Origin as 06:52 GMT. You can also watch the launch live by pressing watch live above.

With last minute checks under way, images from the site over the last couple of days show the vertical rocket ready to make its maiden voyage:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

In the last few moments, aerospace technology company Blue Origin posted on X to underline that they have "prepared rigorously" for their first flight.

"But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations is a replacement for flying this rocket," the post continues.

"Our key objective today is to reach orbit safely. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake."

Blue Origin is aiming to land the booster offshore in the Atlantic - a goal they acknowledge is "ambitious" on a first attempt.

"No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch."

In a new update - the lift-off time has just been pushed back slightly.

According to the new countdown, there is just over 30 minutes to wait before New Glenn launches.

On X, Blue Origin says: "New Glenn’s new T-0 is 1:52 a.m. EST/06:52 UTC."

Image source, Reuters

According to the Blue Origin website, the New Glenn is a “giant, reusable rocket”.

The rocket is engineered with the safety required to fly humans and will supposedly enable Blue Origin to achieve their aim of “building a road to space”.

In its first stage, it is designed for a minimum of 25 flights and claims it will lead to "significantly less waste and cost" as it uses cleaner fuel.

The rocket is named after John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit earth and is regarded as a national hero.

We're expecting lift-off in around 15 minutes at 01:31 EST (06:31 GMT).

Stay with us - we'll be following it closely through our page and you can watch by clicking watch live above.

The launch window for today's mission is minutes away, and the livestream has kicked off.

The window during which Blue Origin will look to launch the New Glenn is three hours long, beginning at 06:00 GMT, but we don't yet know at which point lift-off will occur.

You can watch the livestream of the launch by pressing watch live at the top of the page.

Image source, Reuters

For most, Jeff Bezos is best known for being the founder of the successful e-commerce company Amazon.

In under three decades, the billionaire successfully transformed the once “famously unprofitable” business to one of a handful in the world to be valued at over $2 trillion.

During that time, however, Bezos has also shown an interest in the world beyond business.

Bezos has joined a number of other tech entrepreneurs to enter what has been dubbed as the billionaire space race.

Bezos previously said his aims were to “build a road to space so our kids and their kids can build the future.”

“We need to do that to solve the problems here on Earth,” he added.

Blue Origin, the aerospace technology company founded by Bezos, says it was founded “with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth.”

However, there are plenty of critics of Bezos’ endeavour, with some describing the billionaire space race as a ‘waste of money’ that would be better spent on the climate crisis.

Image source, Reuters

If all goes according to plan, the launch of New Glenn will have several stages, so let us break them down for you:

• The first stage will be lift-off, when the rocket fires up seven huge engines and starts its ascent
• A few minutes into the flight, the booster will detach from the rocket
• The booster will then autonomously descend to a landing platform several hundred miles away in the Atlantic ocean, firing up its engines again to soften the landing and deploying six legs to stand on
• Meanwhile in the air, the other part of the rocket will continue its journey into orbit, packed with technology on board that will enable teams on Earth to evaluate flight capabilities and ground systems
• The mission is expected to take around six hours in total

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Blue Origin's attempted launch of its New Glenn rocket.

All eyes are on Cape Canaveral in Florida, where a three hour window for launch begins at 01:00 local time (06:00 GMT).

The goal is for the New Glenn rocket to lift off and send a vehicle to orbit. The rocket's booster stage is designed to be reusable and it is due to land on a platform which has been towed out to sea.

If successful, the rocket could become a serious competitor to Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest from the launch.