On May 27, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin suffered a major setback when its New Glenn rocket exploded during a static fire test at the Launch Complex in Florida.
Blue Origin has posted an update on X, saying that it was an “anomaly”. No injuries were reported.
Blue Origin rocket explodes during test in Florida
The explosion was followed by a giant fireball that engulfed the launchpad, a short while after the scheduled fire test. The orange sky was vivid and visible from Fort Pierce, 185 km south of the base. The internet quickly filled up with photographs of the orange fireball in the sky.
NASA founder, Jared Isaacman, posted on X, assuring followers of a thorough investigation of the timeline of the explosion. He added, “Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult.” Bezos also took to social media to clarify that it was difficult to find the root cause of the explosion right now, and assured the audience that “we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
Blue Origin has been facing a series of setbacks: New Glenn ended up in the wrong orbit last month and had to be temporarily grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
While the Blue Origin founder tweeted that all employees are safe and that it was “a rough day”, this explosion may impact the competition between Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s Artemis IV mission, which aims to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972.
SpaceX on the other hand, seems to have its nose ahead in the race, as they have gained expertise in landing and reusing rockets. However, Musk expressed his empathy for the explosion and the damage it had caused, posting, “Most unfortunate,” adding, “Rockets are hard.”
HOW DO YOU THINK THIS WILL IMPACT THE BLUE ORIGIN VS SPACE X EQUATION?
