A test firing of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket ended in a violent explosion Thursday night, sending a massive orange fireball across the sky above Cape Canaveral, Florida, and destroying part of the launch pad, according to company officials and emergency responders. The company had fueled the 321-foot rocket with the aim of briefly igniting its engines ahead of a planned satellite launch next week, but the blast tore through the vehicle and the pad infrastructure. No deaths or injuries were reported.
Aerial surveys conducted Friday revealed a scene of devastation, with heaps of twisted metal and crumpled structures strewn across the ground. Only one tower and a water tank remained standing. Emergency officials in Brevard County urged residents and beachgoers to avoid any rocket debris that might wash ashore and to call 911 if they encounter it.
The explosion marks the second serious problem for Blue Origin in a span of weeks. In late April, an anomaly with the New Glenn’s upper-stage engine caused a satellite to be deployed into the wrong orbit, prompting the company to ground the entire fleet while it investigated.
Blue Origin said in a statement that it was assessing the damage and that all safety protocols had been followed. No further details about the cause of the explosion were immediately available.
The New Glenn rocket, named after astronaut John Glenn, is central to Bezos’ ambitions in the commercial space sector. It is designed to carry satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband network and NASA payloads. Thursday’s test was intended to validate the rocket’s BE-4 engines ahead of the upcoming mission.