Blue Originʼs unmanned New Glenn rocket exploded at a launch pad in Florida during testing.
Reuters writes about this.
The video shows the New Glenn rocket firing its engines on the launch pad at around 9:00 PM Eastern Time (04:00 AM May 29, Kyiv time) followed by a powerful explosion. A huge fireball and a column of smoke rose into the sky.
Blue Origin was preparing the rocket for its fourth launch, which was to carry 48 Amazon Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit — part of a project to create a satellite internet network that would compete with Starlink. The satellites had not yet been mounted on the rocket at the time of the incident, a source familiar with the situation said.
The explosion was another setback for the New Glenn program, which has been repeatedly delayed. The rocket is expected to play a key role in delivering lunar landing modules and cargo as part of the Artemis program.
The incident came just two days after NASA awarded Blue Origin a $188 million contract to deliver lunar rovers to the lunar surface, and less than a week after SpaceX conducted largely successful tests of its next-generation Starship rocket.
Blue Origin confirmed that an "anomaly" occurred during a so-called fire test (when the engines are fired while the rocket remains anchored to the ground).
“All employees are in place and safe. It is too early to say what the root cause is, but we are already working to establish it. It has been a very difficult day, but we will restore everything we need and return to flying. It is worth it,” Jeff Bezos wrote on the social network X.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency would assist Blue Origin in investigating the incident.
"Spaceflight is unforgiving, and building new superheavy launch vehicles is an incredibly challenging task. We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess the impact on missions in the near future, and return to launching rockets," he wrote in X.
Isaacman also reported that NASA will separately inform about the possible impact of the incident on the Artemis program and the lunar base project.
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