Blue Origin investigates rocket explosion as public is warned about possible wreckage washing ashore

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is assessing damage to its launch pad after a rocket exploded during a test firing, creating a giant orange fireball seen and felt for miles around.

The company fueled the hulking New Glenn rocket Thursday night, hoping to briefly ignite the engines ahead of a satellite launch next week. But the 321-foot (98-meter), rocket blew up, taking part of the pad with it.

Aerial views on Friday revealed heaps of crumpled structures on the ground, with just one tower and the water tank still standing. Emergency officials warned the public to avoid any wreckage that might wash ashore and to instead call 911. There were no reported deaths or injuries.

It’s a major setback for Blue Origin, coming just one month after the entire New Glenn fleet was grounded because of an upper-stage engine issue that dumped a satellite in the wrong orbit.

Named after John Glenn, the first American in orbit, New Glenn is the rocket that Blue Origin plans to use to launch landers to the moon under NASA’s Artemis program that aims to build a sprawling base near the moon’s south pole. The goal is to land the first Artemis moonwalkers as early as 2028. Earlier this week, the space agency awarded a new contract to Blue Origin worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

One of the biggest rockets to reach orbit, New Glenn has seven first-stage engines fueled by liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas, which is essentially methane. It has flown three times.

None of the assigned 48 Amazon Leo satellites were on board the newest rocket when the blast occurred. Another batch of Amazon Leo satellites — competing with SpaceX’s Starlinks to provide internet service to remote locales — lifted off from another pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday night, courtesy of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket.

It was the second launch of the day. SpaceX launched more Starlinks to orbit Friday morning, within 12 hours of the explosion. CEO Elon Musk has two Florida pads in action, one on the Space Force side where the latest Falcon 9 lifted off and the other at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Blue Origin has just one Florida pad: Launch Complex 36 dating back to the early 1960s. NASA’s Mariner and Pioneer interplanetary probes rocketed away from there, as well as the moon-bound Rangers and Surveyors. The Washington state-based Blue Origin spent more than $1 billion rebuilding the launch complex — taking it from double pads to a single — after leasing it from the Air Force in 2015.

The company’s smaller New Shepard rockets soar from Texas, skimming space for a few minutes with tourists and science experiments. Those suborbital hops were paused in January so the company could focus on New Glenn and upcoming moonshots. All that is now on hold, pending the investigation into the explosion.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said late Thursday that the space agency will evaluate near-term impacts to the Artemis program, which saw four astronauts fly around the moon in April. That Artemis II mission was hoisted by NASA’s Space Launch System rocket.

Before the explosion, Blue Origin was on track to launch a prototype lunar lander to the moon on a New Glenn this fall, with another lander due to rocket into orbit around Earth in 2027 for docking practice by the soon-to-be-announced Artemis III crew.

A touchdown by two astronauts on Artemis IV — using a Blue Moon lander or SpaceX’s Starship, whichever is ready first — was targeted as early as 2028.

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Read more: Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is grounded after launching satellite into the wrong orbit