Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes on launch pad during test – GeekWire
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded today during a hot test fire at its Florida launch pad – causing major damage to the pad, and dealing a major blow to Jeff Bezos’ space business.
“All employees are accounted for and safe,” Bezos said in a post on X. “It’s too early to know the origin but we’re already working to find it. It’s a very difficult day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs to be rebuilt and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
The US Space Force confirmed that there were no injuries or deaths. “Range officials, in collaboration with Blue Origin and relevant partners, are currently reviewing available information to determine the exact cause of the incident,” the Facebook post said. In a subsequent post on X, the Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 warned that debris from this anomaly could wash ashore in the coming days or weeks.
The 322-foot-tall rocket, nicknamed “No, It Must” in reference to the movie “Interstellar,” was supposed to send 48 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit as early as next week. The Federal Aviation Administration approved the launch last week after Blue Origin completed an investigation into a failed launch in April.
In preparation for liftoff, the New Glenn rocket was launched from Blue Origin’s Space Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for a static firing test of its booster engines. The satellites were not on the rocket for testing.
The video showed the rocket exploding in a huge fireball after the engines were ignited. “They just ejected the pad,” one observer was heard saying in a video recorded by Spaceflight Now. Some views of the explosion were captured by NASASpaceflight.com.
Space Launch Complex 36 is the only place built to launch a New Glenn rocket, and the pad will need to be repaired before Blue Origin can return to flight. It is certain that there will be an investigation of the incident conducted under the supervision of the FAA, the Space Force and other authorities.
Next week’s planned launch would have marked the first use of New Glenn to put satellites into orbit for the Amazon Leo Broadband network. More than 300 Amazon Leo satellites are in Earth orbit, thanks to launches by SpaceX, Arianespace and the United Launch Alliance – and today’s anomaly does not affect those companies’ schedules. United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket is expected to launch 29 Amazon Leo satellites from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral on Friday.
Blue Origin’s launch plan, by contrast, appears to be on hold for months. The company was expected to send its robotic Blue Moon Mark 1 rover to the moon just before this fall when it was uploaded by NASA. And NASA has planned a possible test of the Blue Moon Mark 2 manned probe into low-Earth orbit next year with its Artemis 3 mission.
Earlier this week, NASA announced that it had selected Blue Origin and New Glenn to deliver two lunar rovers to the moon in 2028 as part of its ten-year plan to build a permanent lunar base. Now all those plans are up in the air.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in an email to X that the space agency was informed of today’s incident. “Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capabilities is very difficult,” he said. “We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess impacts on nearby missions, and then return to rocket launches. We will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as they become available.”
Blue Origin came in sympathy with Bezos’ rival, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who had to deal with a launch-pad explosion in 2016. “Sorry to see this, I hope you get well soon,” Musk wrote on X.
Thanks to Spaceflight Now and NASASpaceflight.com for permission to use the explosion image.
