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A rocket built by the Jeff Bezos-owned space company Blue Origin blew up on the launchpad in Florida on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The explosion occurred at about 9 p.m. during a test being conducted in advance of an upcoming launch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe experienced an anomaly during today\u2019s hotfire test,\u201d Blue Origin reported on social media. \u201cAll personnel have been accounted for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The test was to fire the seven engines in the booster stage, while keeping the rocket firmly held down on the launchpad. Flames began rising up the sides of the rocket and a massive explosion enveloped the launchpad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The fireball badly damaged the launchpad and surrounding equipment at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It is the only launchpad that Blue Origin has for its 322-foot-tall New Glenn rocket, which is named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. Repairs will most likely take months, at the least.<\/p>\n
The rocket had been set to carry 48 satellites for Amazon\u2019s internet constellation, Leo, an acronym for \u201clow-Earth orbit.\u201d Leo is a competitor to SpaceX\u2019s Starlink network. The Amazon satellites were not onboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too early to know the root cause but we\u2019re already working to find it,\u201d Mr. Bezos wrote on social media. \u201cVery rough day, but we\u2019ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Bezos\u2019 billionaire space competitor, Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, expressed sympathy: \u201cSorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n
The failure will affect NASA\u2019s moon plans, which already include little margin for error.<\/p>\n
Blue Origin is one of two companies \u2014 SpaceX is the other \u2014 that NASA has hired to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon\u2019s surface. That plan depends on multiple New Glenn launches to get that lander to the moon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
NASA\u2019s Artemis III mission, scheduled to launch next year, is intended to allow NASA astronauts to practice docking their Orion capsule with the SpaceX and Blue Origin landers while remaining in orbit around Earth.<\/p>\n
With the destruction of the launchpad, Blue Origin may not be able to participate in Artemis III.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult,\u201d the NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, wrote on X. \u201cWe will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWe will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n
A smaller Blue Origin robotic lunar lander, known as Blue Moon Mark 1, was scheduled to launch later this year on a New Glenn rocket. On Tuesday, NASA also announced that it had awarded contracts to Blue Origin for two New Glenn rockets to take rovers to the moon as soon as 2028, for astronauts to drive during the Artemis IV and Artemis V moon missions.<\/p>\n
Mike Haridopolos, a Republican congressman who represents Cape Canaveral, wrote on X, \u201cI am grateful there were no reported injuries and thankful for the first responders, engineers and launch crews who acted quickly. Praying for Florida\u2019s Space Coast and everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
New Glenn has launched three times so far, with a mixed record. Its debut mission lifted off in January 2025, successfully putting a test satellite in orbit, although an attempt to land the booster on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean failed.<\/p>\n
The second launch was a success, sending NASA\u2019s ESCAPADE mission on the path to Mars and in landing the booster.<\/p>\n
The third launch reused the booster from the second flight and landed it a second time. But because of a malfunction with the second stage, the payload \u2014 a satellite for the company AST SpaceMobile \u2014 ended up in an orbit much lower than intended and burned up in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Karen Weise contributed reporting from Seattle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n