Explosion on launch pad, destroys Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket
The cause of the accident is unknown. According to the company, all personnel are present at roll call
New Glenn, one of two rockets of Blue Origin, the space company of Jeff Bezos, exploded on the night between Thursday and Friday on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, in the midst of preparations for its launch into space with a cargo of satellites. There were no astronauts on board the launcher.
"We encountered an anomaly during the static ignition test," the company reported in a post on X, adding that "all personnel are present at roll call. We will provide updates as soon as we have more information'. 'Anomaly' is the euphemism commonly used by space companies to describe a launch failure or explosion.
Footage, relayed by the US media, showed what appeared to be engine ignition, followed by an explosion and a huge ball of fire enveloping the launch site. "It's too early to know the root cause, but we're already working to find out," Jeff Bezos said via X. "It's been a very tough day, but we're going to rebuild everything that needs to be rebuilt and get back to flying. It's worth it."
The aerospace company wanted to place 48 satellites in low Earth orbit, with the aim of expanding the broadband capabilities of e-commerce and cloud services giant Amazon. New Glenn, which of Blue Origin's two rockets was the one designed to carry the heaviest payloads into space, had failed a mission to place a communications satellite into orbit in April.
The incident is the second rocket explosion recorded in recent days, after a Starship of SpaceX, the company of Tesla patron Elon Musk, burst into flames upon landing at the end of a test flight. Musk's SpaceX and Bezos's Blue Origin are competing to contribute to man's return to the Moon ahead of China's planned manned mission in 2030 by designing the lunar landers to be used by NASA.
