Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Dramatically Explodes During Engine Test Firing

A routine engine test went horribly wrong for Blue Origin last night. Rather than firing its engines, the New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad, reports the Associated Press. While SpaceX Starship explosions seem to have become fairly routine, this is the first New Glenn rocket to suffer such a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."

"All personnel are accounted for and safe," said Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos in a Twitter post. "It's too early to know the root cause but we're already working to find it. Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It's worth it."

The New Glenn rocket was testing its first stage engines in preparation for a launch next week. That launch was supposed put some Amazon Leo satellites into orbit. The satellites were not on board at the time, but they will not go to space today. The blast also caused significant damage to Launch Complex 36. Video from Spaceflight Now shows that one of the two lightning towers was gone after the blast. Fires burned for some time, and emergency crews were on the scene for more than an hour putting them out. The full extent of the damage is yet to be determined, but Space Force officials say the accident will not delay upcoming flights by other companies on nearby launch pads.

Although this was New Glenn's most spectacular failure, it isn't the first. After successfully completing its first operational mission last November, its third mission failed to place its satellite into a usable orbit due to a problem in the second stage. The launch of this rocket next week was to have been the first since it was cleared to fly again.

This does not bode well for Blue Origin's plans to go all-in on Earth orbit and moon missions with New Glenn. It's not a good look for a rocket to explode on the launch pad just days after NASA announced that this same rocket would launch the first mission to begin building a moon base as early as this fall, according to the Guardian. Several New Glenn flights are also supposed to deliver rovers and other equipment to the moon over the next couple of years before astronauts land there. While some failures are a perfectly normal part of ironing the bugs out of any new rocket, the extremely tight timeline for upcoming moon missions leaves no room for setbacks like this.

Even its part in next year's Artemis III mission may be in jeopardy. Rather than another trip to the moon, "NASA's Artemis III mission in low Earth orbit will test integrated operations between the Orion spacecraft and one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin respectively," according to NASA. Regardless of whether Blue Origin has a moon lander ready to test yet, it may not even be able to launch it if the heavily damaged Launch Complex 36 isn't rebuilt in time, or if New Glenn is grounded again.