Overview
- The New Glenn suffered a major explosion during a static-fire engine test on Thursday night at Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, producing a large fireball and a shockwave felt in nearby towns.
- Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos said all personnel were accounted for and there were no injuries, and the company confirmed the 48 Amazon/Leo satellites planned for an upcoming mission were not on the vehicle.
- Post-incident reporting and video show structural damage to pad infrastructure including lightning towers and the launch arm, and the rocket was reportedly fully fueled at the time of the test, increasing the blast’s magnitude.
- The FAA, NASA and the U.S. Space Force have opened or are coordinating reviews of the anomaly while Blue Origin begins an internal investigation into the root cause.
- The explosion compounds an April New Glenn flight anomaly that left a customer satellite in the wrong orbit and is expected to delay the planned early-June launch and could affect Blue Origin’s schedules for commercial deployments and NASA lunar work.