The company was doing a hotfire test to prepare for New Glenn's next mission:
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket has exploded on its launchpad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station while the company was conducting ground tests for an upcoming launch. The company explained that it "experienced an anomaly" during a hotfire test and will provide more details about the incident when it learns more. On X, company owner Jeff Bezos said all personnel are safe and account for. Blue Origin has already started investigating, but it's too early to know the root cause of the explosion. "Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying," he added. "It's worth it.
As you can see in the footage of the explosion above, it pretty much obliterated the rocket, the structure and the equipment around it. As The New York Times reports, that's Blue Origin's only launchpad for New Glenn, and it could take several months for the company to repair it.
The incident could affect Blue Origin's participation in NASA's Artemis and Moon Base programs, wherein it's expected to provide a commercial lunar lander for both cargo and crew. NASA even chose Blue Origin over SpaceX for the Moon Base I mission, which it's hoping to launch this fall. Blue Origin's lunar missions require the use of its New Glenn rocket, but with its launchpad now out of commission, NASA may have to rethink its plans.
[...] Blue Origin has only just gotten clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch its New Glenn rocket again. The FAA grounded New Glenn after it had failed to put the payload it was carrying into orbit in its third mission. It oversaw the company's investigation and determined that the incident was caused by a "cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line and led to a thrust anomaly during the second-stage engine burn." After the FAA gave the company permission to launch New Glenn again, it quickly started preparing the rocket for its next mission, which will clearly not happen anytime soon.
(Score: 3, Funny) by AnonTechie on Sunday May 31, @01:32PM
It is better that it exploded down here than up there ... Maybe they will learn some important lessons !!
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 4, Funny) by gringer on Sunday May 31, @02:30PM (1 child)
When asked whether it was a bad idea to explode rockets prior to launching them, the company replied:
"No, It's Necessary"
Ask me about Sequencing DNA [youtube.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Sunday May 31, @05:50PM
They then continued to state that that’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point. Well there are a lot of these rockets being launched all the time, and very seldom does anything like this happen. I just don’t want people thinking that rockets aren’t safe. I’m not saying it wasn’t safe, it’s just perhaps not quite as safe as some of the other ones. Some of them are built so that they don't explode on the launchpad at all.
They then went on about it being outside the environment so there's nothing to worry about, but the interview ran out of time.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Snotnose on Sunday May 31, @02:54PM
Nobody expected this thing to blow up, which is why a second booster in a hanger may have also been destroyed. As usual, Scott Manley [youtube.com] has a good explanation.
Trump's Grave will be the world's most popular open air toilet.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Fnord666 on Sunday May 31, @03:38PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31, @06:54PM
It's tradition! [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Sunday May 31, @08:34PM
I’m really interested in the spectacular explosion. Was that a self-destruct or was it that catastrophic and unintentional? I’m no engineer but asking for those types to discuss.