“Ten, nine, eight, seven ... two, one,” the voice over the loudspeaker began the countdown. One second later, the thrust of a newly designed rocket shakes the ground, its roar echoing for miles. In the control room, a group of employees—seemingly trying with all their might to match the rocket’s intensity—celebrate its liftoff. A launch-company executive is shouting, ecstatic the rocket is taking off rather than malfunctioning on the launch pad.