At that point, to remain on Earth would require rationing and declining opportunities. But the rest of the solar system offers virtually limitless resources. “Do we want stasis and rationing or do we want dynamism and growth?” he asked rhetorically. “This is an easy choice. We know what we want. We just have to get busy.”

Mr. Bezos founded his rocket company in 2000, which means that it has been around longer than the other, better-known billionaire rocket company, Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Mr. Musk started SpaceX in 2002.

But for the first decade and a half of its existence, Blue Origin operated quietly. When one of its rockets crashed during a test flight in 2011, a week passed before Mr. Bezos acknowledged the failure.

In 2016, Mr. Bezos finally invited journalists for a visit to Blue Origin’s headquarters in Kent, Wash., south of Seattle, and described his vision of millions of people living and working in space .

On Thursday, Mr. Bezos seemed to take indirect aim at Mr. Musk’s vision of establishing a colony on Mars. The Amazon founder said giant space colonies — rotating to provide artificial gravity — would be a much more practical solution to settling humans across the solar system. Mars, the moon and other destinations would not provide all that much space to live, and they are distant and largely inhospitable.

The colonies Dr. O’Neill envisioned would be much more inviting. “This is Maui on its best day all year around,” he said. And people could still easily go back to Earth.

For now, Blue Origin is still in the early stages, far behind the accomplishments of SpaceX. T wo years ago, Mr. Bezos said he would be selling $1 billion a year in Amazon stock to finance Blue Origin. Mr. Bezos will retain control of Blue Origin after his divorce this year.