Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket explodes during testing in Florida
TechCrunch • • business
Key Points:
- Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded during a static fire test at Cape Canaveral, Florida, ahead of its planned fourth launch carrying Amazon’s Leo internet satellites; the company confirmed the incident and reported all personnel are safe.
- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acknowledged the explosion with no impact on air traffic, while NASA and the Space Force have yet to comment.
- This explosion likely delays Blue Origin’s New Glenn program, which had aimed for up to 12 launches in 2026 to compete with SpaceX and support NASA’s Artemis moon missions and Pentagon national security launches.
- The incident follows a recent failure during New Glenn’s third flight, where an upper stage malfunction caused the loss of a satellite, although the booster was successfully reused and landed twice.
- Blue Origin has spent years developing New Glenn as a heavy-lift rocket for commercial payloads, with Amazon relying on it to build its satellite internet constellation as a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink.