Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. (REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing)

LOS ANGELES, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Blue Origin, the U.S. aerospace company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, launched Sunday the suborbital New Shepard rocket and space capsule.

The mission marked the company's first test flight of the year and second flight of the New Shepard 2.0 spacecraft.

Thunderstorms have delayed Sunday's planned launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard 2.0 spacecraft. The rocket blasted off at about 13:07 EST (1707 GMT) from its West Texas test site.

Several minutes later, the booster made a successful vertical landing.

This is Blue Origin's eight spaceflight since the company began flight testing New Shepard vehicles. The first New Shepard 2.0 launch occurred in December 2017, with six other flights launching on a predecessor New Shepard, which Blue Origin has since retired.

New Shepard 2.0 space capsule is designed to fly commercial payloads and up to 6 passengers on suborbital space flights for science and tourism.

The New Shepard 2.0 space capsule features giant windows to give future passengers a stunning view of their launch into space.