In May, Jeff Bezos unveiled the lunar lander, dubbed Blue Moon, that his spacecraft company Blue Origin hopes to fly in the coming years. (Credit: Blue Origin)

The rocket’s flare is sudden and brilliant, a blurring horizontal column of whooshing fire. Just as quickly, the bright jet flickers out of existence, the few seconds of burn enough complete the test.

A pause in the control room, then applause ripples around. The group retires to a test cell nearby, where there are speeches and pho