Blue Origin's New Glenn heavy-lift rocket exploded violently during a ground ignition test on Thursday night local time, triggering a huge fireball and severely damaging the rocket's only launch tower and related facilities in Florida. It was seen as a major blow to NASA's moon base plan and Amazon's low-orbit broadband constellation "Leo" project.
At the time of the incident, the New Glenn rocket was undergoing a so-called "hot fire test" at Blue Origin's LC-36 launch site in Florida, which ignited the seven engines of the first stage while the rocket was fixed on the launch pad. The entire rocket was about 322 feet (about 98 meters) high. The explosion occurred at about 9 p.m., and the subsequent fireball and impact caused serious damage to the launch facility. The footage was captured by on-site media and posted to social platforms, attracting widespread attention.
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said on the social platform X that it is too early to determine the root cause of the accident and the company has begun an investigation. "It's been a very difficult day, but we will rebuild everything that needs to be rebuilt and get back flying and it will be worth it," he said.
Sources told technology media Ars Technica that in this accident, the launch site's transporter-erector and a lightning protection tower may have been beyond repair. Ars Technica senior aerospace reporter Eric Berger commented that New Glenn will almost certainly not be launched again in 2026. If the first flight can be achieved in the first half of 2027, it will be regarded as an "extremely optimistic situation."
The setback in New Glenn's progress has a direct impact on NASA's recently announced moon landing and lunar base schedule. On Tuesday, NASA just announced that it plans to launch a robotic lunar lander on a New Glenn rocket as early as the fall of 2026, paving the way for the subsequent construction of a long-term base on the moon. In addition, according to current plans, Blue Origin will also participate in the Artemis III mission in 2027, when astronauts will take the Orion spacecraft to rendezvous and dock in lunar orbit with the lunar lander developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on the
The New Glenn rocket that exploded was originally scheduled to launch 48 Amazon Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit at once on an upcoming mission. This is the largest single launch planned for the project so far. Fortunately, these satellites had not yet been loaded onto the rocket and were not damaged in the accident.
Amazon is using the Leo constellation to deploy global satellite Internet services similar to SpaceX Starlink, but progress has lagged behind regulatory deadlines. So far, Amazon has only launched slightly more than 300 Leo satellites, and the US Federal Communications Commission requires it to deploy 1,618 satellites before July 30, 2026. Amazon has applied for an extension of the period to maintain the spectrum use license.
Amazon originally counted on New Glenn's large capacity and reusable boosters to speed up the launch pace and make up for previous delays. After losing this "main launch tool", Amazon was forced to rely more on secondary launch service providers such as United Launch Alliance (ULA), Arianespace (Arianespace), and even its largest competitor SpaceX, thus facing greater pressure in terms of cost, scheduling and strategic autonomy.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk also expressed regret for what happened to Blue Origin in a post on X, "It's sad to see this scene, and I hope you can recover as soon as possible." In an era of increasingly fierce competition in commercial aerospace, this accident not only highlights the high risks of heavy-lift rocket development and operation, but also adds uncertainty to NASA's deep space exploration and Amazon's broadband constellation deployment.