According to Bloomberg, the "New Glenn" rocket of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company exploded during a test on the launch pad in Florida on Thursday night local time in the United States. Live video showed that the rocket exploded into a huge fireball.
Blue Origin was preparing for the fourth launch of the New Glenn rocket.The mission plans to deploy a number of satellites for Amazon's "Leo" low-orbit satellite network. Leo is seen as a competitor to SpaceX Starlink.
An Amazon spokesman said the rocket was not carrying any payload when it exploded.
Blue Origin announced on X that,The rocket experienced an "abnormality" during testing. The company said all personnel were confirmed safe.
The New Glenn rocket is key to Blue Origin's space exploration program, but it has been delayed by several years, with longer-than-expected wait times between flights. Blue Origin originally hoped to build the "New Glenn" rocket into a reliable replacement for the SpaceX "Falcon 9" rocket, but this explosion once again dealt a blow to its reputation.
In addition, the New Glenn rocket is also expected to play a key role in NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon. It is also one of the few vehicles selected to deliver the most critical national security satellites for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Blue Origin completed the third mission of its New Glenn rocket in April this year. The rocket took off smoothly and its booster successfully landed on one of the company's unmanned ships at sea. However, the rocket's second stage encountered a problem in space and failed to generate enough thrust, causing the AST SpaceMobile satellite it carried to fail to enter its intended orbit. Eventually, the satellite crashed back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.