Blue Origin’s New Glenn explodes during Florida launchpad test

FLORIDA: Blue Origin’s uncrewed New Glenn rocket exploded on a launchpad in Florida during a test late on Thursday, dealing a fresh blow to Jeff Bezos’ space company as it tries to compete more closely with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Video published by NASASpaceflight, which streams launches from Florida, showed the large rocket igniting on the pad at about 9pm ET, or 6am Pakistan time on Friday, before a huge fireball rose into the air along with flames and smoke.

Blue Origin said it experienced an anomaly during a hot-fire test, a procedure in which rocket engines are fired while the vehicle remains fixed to the ground. The company had been preparing New Glenn for its fourth launch, a mission intended to carry 48 Amazon Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit as part of Amazon’s effort to build a broadband satellite network to compete with Starlink.

A source familiar with the matter said the Amazon Leo satellites had not been attached to the rocket when the incident occurred.

The explosion is the latest setback for the delayed New Glenn programme, which is expected to be important for transporting lunar landers and cargo under NASA’s Artemis moon missions. The incident came two days after NASA awarded Blue Origin a $188 million contract to land rovers on the moon, and less than a week after SpaceX conducted a largely successful test of its next-generation Starship rocket.

Bezos said on X that the cause was not yet known.

Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. Its worth it

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency would work with Blue Origin as the investigation moves forward.

Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult

Isaacman also said NASA would share information on any effects the incident may have on its Artemis and Moon Base programmes.

Competition with SpaceX

Blue Origin and SpaceX have been competing to help return humans to the moon before China’s planned crewed mission in 2030, with both billionaire-led companies developing lunar landers for NASA.

SpaceX has also faced failures in testing. In June last year, its Starship spacecraft exploded in a major fireball during testing in Texas ahead of a test flight. Last week, the company achieved partial success in the 12th test flight of a Starship prototype by deploying mock satellites and carrying out a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, although it did not manage a controlled landing of the Super Heavy booster, which fell into the Gulf of Mexico.

Musk reacted on X to footage of the Blue Origin blast, writing:

Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.

Blue Origin has spent billions of dollars and around a decade developing New Glenn, a 29-storey rocket with a reusable first stage designed to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon rockets and the more powerful Starship system.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of the incident, adding that the event was outside its scope and did not affect air traffic in the area.