A New Glenn rocket from Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, exploded during a test in Florida, according to multiple reports.
A fireball lit up the sky over Florida’s Kennedy Space Center late Wednesday, destroying the launchpad seconds after the start of a scheduled hot-fire test at 9 p.m. EDT.
An orange glow was visible in Fort Pierce, about 115 miles south of the launch site.
Videos showed the 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket igniting on the pad at Cape Canaveral around 9 p.m. local time before erupting into a bright orange fireball that engulfed the surrounding area and shook nearby homes.
Emergency officials said there was no threat due to fumes or other potential hazards. Flames were still burning at the launchpad more than two hours after the explosion.
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Bezos said on X that all his company’s employees were accounted for, safe and uninjured, but lamented a “very rough day.” He also added that it was “too early to know the root cause” of what happened. Blue Origin confirmed it had experienced an “anomaly” during a so-called “hot-fire” test, which is when a rocket is fired up while remaining anchored to the ground.
“Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult,” said NASA Administrator Jason Isaacman.
Isaacman added that NASA would work with its partners to support a full investigation into the incident, evaluate any immediate effects on upcoming missions and resume launch operations as soon as possible. He added that updates on potential impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs would be released when available.
New Glenn is the type of rocket Blue Origin intends to use to launch landers to the moon for NASA, including the landers that will take astronauts to the lunar surface. This accident has added uncertainty to those plans.
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Blue Origin, which is competing with SpaceX for NASA contracts, has endured a number of setbacks. A payload from the third flight of New Glenn ended up in the wrong orbit during a flight last month, and the rocket was temporarily grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Thursday’s test was the first static fire test — one in which the rocket remains on the launchpad — since the FAA cleared it to return to flight last week. Both Blue Origin and SpaceX have both built large new facilities in or close to the Cape Canaveral space center to support crewed and cargo missions while partnering with NASA.
Artemis III, planned for 2027, is scheduled to test Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, and SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS). This will determine which will ferry the Artemis IV crew from Orion capsule to the lunar surface.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to the New Glenn explosion, saying “Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.”