There’s a reason why anything complicated is compared to rocket science. One of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rockets — the same type used for manned launches — exploded on the launchpad last night. Nobody was hurt, as far as is known, since it wasn’t actually supposed to lift off.
Instead, the New Glenn rocket was undergoing a hot-fire test on the pad. The test was being recorded and streamed, with the subsequent spectacular explosion being caught on camera. We’re not using ‘spectacular’ lightly, either.
Blue Origin blew up
Blue Origin’s rocket was supposed to launch at a later stage. The hardware was scheduled to send a batch of Amazon satellites into orbit. Unlike a recent SpaceX explosion that destroyed a Facebook satellite, the cargo was not on board when the rocket detonated.
A fiery mishap was bound to happen to the Jeff Bezos-owned space company sooner or later. The now-decommissioned rocket was on its fourth launch, having succeeded in not blowing up three times in a row. The explosion has prompted speculation that Blue Origin may have issues with a recently awarded NASA contract, but it’s too soon to tell, either way.
The space company described the event as an “anomaly”, while NASA administrator Jared Isaacman added that “Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult.” The setback could affect NASA’s ongoing Artemis program and other plans, but any impact will have to wait until the accident has been fully assessed.
