Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Explodes During Engine Test

Explosion at Cape Canaveral

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket was destroyed in an explosion around 9:00 p.m. EDT on May 28 during a test firing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The company had been conducting a test firing of the rocket's seven methane-fueled BE-4 first-stage engines when the test went wrong.

The 188-foot first stage caught fire. The 86-foot upper stage then tilted and fell, and the vehicle exploded as its methane fuel and liquid oxygen ignited. The rocket was destroyed in the blast.

No injuries, but a damaged pad

No one was injured in the incident. The setback nonetheless carries operational consequences: Blue Origin has only one New Glenn launch pad, and it was damaged in the explosion, raising questions about how quickly the company can return to flight.

The company had been gearing up for a June launch to deploy a batch of Amazon "Leo" internet satellites. New Glenn had flown three times previously, and an April flight had suffered an upper-stage malfunction, making this latest failure the second setback in recent months.

Bezos responds

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addressed the failure publicly, signaling that an investigation was already under way.

"It's too early to know the root cause but we're already working to find it," Bezos said. The explosion marks a significant blow for one of the leading commercial space companies competing with SpaceX, leaving its near-term launch plans and its planned satellite deployment in question.