[Live Broadcast Entrance] Watch Blue Origin’s next big New Glenn rocket launch here

Blue Origin is gearing up for its biggest launch yet. On Sunday, the commercial space company owned by Jeff Bezos will launch its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket into space for the first time.

The results of the launch, nearly a decade in the making, could threaten the dominance of Elon Musk's SpaceX not only in commercial spaceflight but also in the satellite internet business. Here's what you need to know about New Glenn's flight, and how to watch the live broadcast.

What is "New Glenn" and why is it important?

First announced in 2016, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is designed to carry cargo, satellites and, in the future, people into space. The New Glenn rocket is named after John Glenn, the first NASA astronaut to enter Earth orbit.

Its first stage is powered by seven Blue Origin's powerful BE-4 engines, which run on liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen. Blue Origin aims to reuse New Glenn's first stage on at least 25 missions, as it is designed to land vertically on an offshore platform after launch for the company to recover.

The rocket's final stage is disposable and carries Blue Origin's payload. It can carry 13 metric tons of payload into geostationary transfer orbit and 45 metric tons of payload into low Earth orbit. Blue Origin said New Glenn also "has the safety and redundancy required for manned flight." While Blue Origin originally aimed to launch New Glenn in 2020, its first flight has been continually delayed due to development issues with the BE-4 engine and other technical glitches.

As NPR points out, New Glenn's cargo capacity is similar to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, but its cargo bay is larger, 23 feet wide. If New Glenn is successful, competition with SpaceX will heat up as both companies compete for lucrative government contracts.

New Glenn is also key to Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite internet plans. While the company's first satellites are scheduled to launch this year aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, Blue Origin will eventually launch Project Kuiper satellites aboard New Glenn, rivaling SpaceX's Starlink. Amazon plans to send 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites into space, which is still far fewer than Starlink's growing constellation of more than 6,000 satellites.

What to expect from New Glenn's first launch

New Glenn will take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1 a.m. ET (10 p.m. PT) on January 12, with a launch time of three hours. The launch was originally scheduled for January 10, but was postponed due to "high sea conditions in the Atlantic Ocean."

On this unmanned launch, New Glenn will carry the Blue Ring Pathfinder, a payload consisting of a communications array, power system and flight computer. It will test the company's Blue Ring spacecraft, which will support the mission with refueling, hosting, data relay and cloud computing capabilities. Blue Origin CEO David Limp said New Glenn's goal is to reach orbit and that "anything beyond that," such as landing a reusable booster, is a "bonus."