Correct. Engines throttled down to around 50%.

So they used nearly all of the engines, but only achieved half of max thrust. Is that because they didn't throttle the engines to 100%, or is there some other reason?

You are absolutely correct, they deserve credit where credit is due. The only thing I would counter you on is the difficulty of launching a large rocket is the number of systems required to work in those environments without failures. Not just the rockets running that long. The reason most space companies start small isn't because they hope to take over the small sat market but because it is more attainable to start small for quicker test and iterations. Bezos strategy is certainly bold but I would argue not very pragmatic. He is basically going all in blind on New Glen. If he pulls it off it will be an incredible feat. But if it fails how many chances will he have to recover. Even Boing, a company with significant industry experience has struggled to keep up with large rocketry in recent years by comparison to Space X. I absolutely love all the competition in space right now but I won't be holding my breath for the first launch of New Glen.

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Strangely nonenof that translates to orbit or interplanetary travel...

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In this case they've literally spent the last TWO decades working on this, and still have yet to even try, so yeah I'd say that's worse when they're applying for contracts.

They did that for SLS but the first flight of SLS was a mock production flight. The first flight of SS will be a test flight. There is no chance the infrastructure at Boca Chica would survive that.

You really think that something that has minus 3.600 tons of weight will not go to orbit?

That will not only go to orbit, that will leave the earth gravity.

There's also full (launch) duration testing. Doing a full duration test with an engine is often about essentially simulating a launch, ensuring that you can sustain the performance you need for the requisite amount of time.

More than, since it will have 2 more engines.

That is what a full duration static test is. An aborted static test is not full duration.

I'm still highly skeptical that an engine with that large of a chamber and that high of a chamber pressure can survive, but I guess we'll see!

You sure it doesn't reach stage sep in 5 seconds?

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Nearly twice as much I guess

I'd be a little worried - New Glenn doesn't even have a track record and it's less than 2 years from the launch date; it's a 2 year wait if they miss that window.

If that was only half of the booster's thrust, imagine what full thrust will look like!

There are zero functioning human moon landing systems in the world. Even if there were a few, dissimilar redundancy can bring down the cost.

Don't forget they hire from a pool of engineers that already work in the most advanced aerospace industry in the world.

Remember before the billionaires the rockets were more expensive and less ambitious. Unless you can build a rocket on Kickstarter this is as good as it gets.

They awarded the Apollo rockets to companies that had never been to the moon before as well. Pure corruption.

I mean... lets give them some credit. New Shepard has worked pretty reliably, even considering the recent failure. They have more experience with operating rocket powered vehicles than most other NewSpace companies. More importantly, they have experience with operating human rated reusable spacecraft, even if they just launch vertically up and then fall back down.

The difficulty in spaceflight for most companies arises in keeping their engines running for long enough to make orbit. Chaining two stages together when you already have the experience to operate them is not that much of a leap.

The only reason Blue is taking so long at the moment is because they wanted to skip smallsat launchers (a wise move given their small market and many competitors) and instead start out with a true monster of a rocket in the form of New Glenn. Rockets of that size take time. Compared to any development program of this type that is not SpaceX they are doing perfectly fine.