LIBBY, Mont. - On the morning he was scheduled to get his first shot of coronavirus vaccine, Mike Jellesed woke in a fury and wheeled his pickup out of his trailer park, headed for the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in town.

Blue Origin, the rocket venture founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, executed what it called an "astronaut rehearsal" of its suborbital New Shepard rocket Wednesday, launching the craft to the edge of space after having employees board as if they were going to travel with it, then disembarking before liftoff.