Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test Thursday night at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, damaging equipment at the company’s Launch Complex 36. The “anomaly,” as Blue Origin called it in a post on X, occurred at about 9 p.m. during a hot-fire test of the rocket’s first-stage engines ahead of a planned launch of 48 Amazon Leo broadband satellites, which were not onboard at the time.
BREAKING: A Blue Origin rocket exploded on the launch tower in a fiery blast during an engine test, the company said.
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“All personnel are accounted for and safe,” Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos wrote 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 FAA told CNN the test was not part of FAA-licensed launch activity and said there was no impact to air traffic. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency would work with its partners to assess the anomaly and any potential effects on Artemis and moon base plans.
New Glenn has flown three times since its first launch in January 2025, including one mission that successfully sent NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft toward Mars and recovered the booster.
Blue Origin warned Friday that debris from the incident could wash ashore and advised the public not to touch or approach any debris.
