Blue Origin’s powerful New Glenn rocket exploded spectacularly on Thursday, May 28, during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, Florida, a major disappointment for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company.
“All personnel have been located and are safe. It is still too early to know the exact cause” of this explosion, said the American multi-billionaire. “It’s a really tough day, but we’re going to fix everything that needs to be fixed and get flying again.” It’s worth it,” he added.
Earlier, his company had indicated that it had “noticed an anomaly during the firing test” of the rocket engines, on the same platform. A video published by a specialized media shows the powerful explosion in the night of this rocket almost 100 meters high.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn just blew up at LC-36 while attempting to Static Fire ahead of NG-4.https://t.co/tANS0dWyIH pic.twitter.com/PztxFoBqIw
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) May 29, 2026
I manage my choices I authorize
If anomalies during ground tests which precede launches are relatively frequent, such explosions are rare and the magnitude of the latter raises fears of having seriously damaged the launch site on which the rocket was located.
Florida Congressman Mike Haridopolos, whose constituency includes Cape Canaveral, said on X that he had “talked” with NASA chief Jared Isaacman about the explosion. “I am relieved that no injuries were reported and thank the first responders, engineers, and launch teams who acted quickly,” he wrote.
“We will work with our partners to conduct a thorough investigation into this anomaly,” then reacted NASA boss Jared Isaacman, promising to “communicate as soon as possible any information on possible repercussions for the program on the Artemis and lunar base program.”
Lunar ambitions
The New Glenn rocket, which began flying in early 2025, is in fact at the heart of the lunar ambitions of Jeff Bezos but also of NASA.
The company Blue Origin was tasked by the American space agency with developing moon landing devices to deliver both astronauts and equipment to the lunar surface to establish a base. However, the company needs the New Glenn rocket to launch them.
In April, Blue Origin had already suffered a failure during the third launch of this large rocket. If it had then succeeded in recovering the interior stage of the device for the second time during a complex maneuver, a malfunction had prevented the upper stage from placing a communications satellite in the targeted orbit.
This new disappointment, much more significant, should delay the return to flight of the rocket, which was preparing to soon launch satellites from Amazon’s Leo constellation.
This could also affect the already very tight schedule of the Artemis lunar program, which has already suffered numerous delays and disappointments, while the United States is working hard to succeed in sending humans back to the Moon before their great Chinese rivals.
Elon Musk, boss of the company SpaceX which notably competes with Blue Origin in the framework of the Artemis program, reacted to the news in a tone of empathy, wishing his rival to “get back on his feet quickly”.
