Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Fails in Test Launch in Florida

The New Glenn mega-rocket from Blue Origin has reportedly detonated during a test at its launch facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as confirmed by a live stream from NASASpaceFlight.com. Blue Origin subsequently acknowledged the incident.

Jeff Bezos’ company was performing a static fire test in preparation for what was anticipated to be the fourth launch of the rocket in the coming weeks. In a post on X Thursday evening, Blue Origin announced that “[a]ll personnel have been accounted for.” However, they did not disclose the cause of the incident, simply noting that an “anomaly” had occurred. Requests for comments from NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Space Force remain unanswered at this time.

This explosion likely suggests that Blue Origin will need to pause the New Glenn program for an extensive period while they investigate the root cause. The company had aimed to attempt as many as 12 launches of New Glenn this year, following nearly a decade of development to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Furthermore, Blue Origin is expected to play a role in NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon, with the agency highlighting the company’s anticipated participation in that initiative earlier this week.

“Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard,” Elon Musk commented on X shortly after the incident.

This explosion comes just weeks after the New Glenn rocket successfully completed its third flight. That mission faced its own challenges when the New Glenn upper stage failed to place a satellite for AST SpaceMobile into orbit, resulting in a total mission loss. Just last week, the FAA authorized New Glenn for another flight following Blue Origin’s investigation into the earlier failure.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.