A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explodes during an engine-firing test on Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (@JConcilus via AP)
Associated Press
A rocket being tested by Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin dramatically exploded on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday night. It comes just days after NASA awarded Blue Origin multiple contracts to launch payloads to the lunar surface in support of NASA’s moonbase program as the space agency attempts to create a permanent lunar base.
The explosion occurred at 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 28, during a static test fire of Blue Origin’s New Glenn NG-4 super heavy lift rocket, named for NASA astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. It occurred on launch pad LC-36A while the rocket’s first stage was full of liquid methane. No one was injured.
Huge Fireball
The huge fireball, captured by NASASpaceflight.com, was perhaps the most powerful rocket explosion since the Soviet Union’s N1 rocket in 1957, according to Ars Technica.
“All personnel are accounted for and safe,” Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, posted on X. “It’s too early to know the root cause, but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
The rocket had been due to launch 48 satellites into low-Earth orbit next week as part of the Amazon Leo broadband internet access constellation, designed to directly challenge SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. It plans to deploy 3,236 satellites.
New Glenn Rocket Mishaps
It’s the second mishap for Blue Origin in six weeks. On April 19, New Glenn launched and landed without problems for only the third time. However, it failed to deliver its payload — AST SpaceMobile’s huge BlueBird 7 satellite — into the correct orbit. The company’s next three BlueBird satellites are scheduled for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in mid-June.
The incidents are setbacks for the company as it attempts to challenge SpaceX for dominance in the heavy-lift rocket market.
Space Tourism On Pause
Blue Origin announced in January that it will pause its space tourism program to focus fully on its contracts with NASA to deliver a lunar lander. Its New Shepherd reusable rocket has so far taken 98 people above the Kármán line — the threshold between Earth and space — during 38 trips.
That pause appears to have been successful, with Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander — launched on the company’s New Glenn rockets — now in pole position to carry three uncrewed missions to the moon in advance of its involvement in NASA’s Artemis III and IV missions. Blue Origin has an increasingly important role in NASA’s Artemis Program — possibly at the expense of SpaceX — with the latest Blue Moon lunar lander, called Endurance, recently completing testing with NASA.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
