Cape Canaveral, Florida — Blue Origin’s powerful New Glenn rocket exploded in a massive fireball during a hot-fire engine test on the launchpad early Friday, dealing a significant setback to Jeff Bezos’ space company.
The incident occurred around 2am GMT at a Florida launch site. Blue Origin described it as an “anomaly” and confirmed all personnel were safe with no injuries reported. In a post on X, Bezos acknowledged it was a “very rough day” but vowed to investigate the root cause and rebuild. “It’s worth it,” he added.
New Glenn, a 29-storey tall heavy-lift rocket designed to rival SpaceX’s Falcon and Starship, is years behind schedule. It aims to launch national security payloads for the Pentagon and support NASA’s Artemis lunar programme.
This follows a troubled third flight in April where the booster landed successfully but the upper stage failed, causing a satellite to burn up on re-entry.
Spaceflight remains “unforgiving,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman noted.
