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Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn mega-rocket just exploded during testing at a launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to live streams<\/a> from NASASpaceFlight.com and SpaceFlight Now<\/a>. Blue Origin later confirmed the explosion.<\/p>\n Jeff Bezos\u2019 space company was performing a static fire test ahead of an anticipated fourth launch of the new rocket in the coming weeks, which was supposed to carry Amazon Leo internet satellites to space. That means the rocket was likely fully fueled, contributing to what is one of the largest rocket explosions in U.S. history and the worst failure in Blue Origin\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n Blue Origin said<\/a> in an X post Thursday evening that \u201c[a]ll personnel have been accounted for,\u201d and Bezos wrote<\/a> that they were \u201csafe.\u201d The company didn\u2019t say what went wrong, only that an \u201canomaly\u201d occurred. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s too early to know the root cause but we\u2019re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we\u2019ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It\u2019s worth it,\u201d Bezos wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a post<\/a> late Thursday that the agency will \u201cwork with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets.\u201d <\/p>\n In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told TechCrunch it was aware of the explosion and said there was \u201cno impact to air traffic.\u201d NASA and the Space Force did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The explosion likely means Blue Origin will have to pause the New Glenn rocket program for an extended period of time while it works through what went wrong. Blue Origin had been planning to attempt as many as 12 launches of New Glenn this year, after the company spent around a decade developing it in an attempt to compete with Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX. <\/p>\n The company is also supposed to help power NASA\u2019s Artemis missions to the moon, with the agency highlighting Blue Origin\u2019s expected role<\/a> in that program earlier this week. Isaacman said Thursday that NASA will \u201cprovide any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.\u201d <\/p>\n Blue Origin has been aiming to launch national security missions for the Pentagon as well.<\/p>\n \u201cMost unfortunate. Rockets are hard,\u201d Elon Musk wrote<\/a> on X shortly<\/a> after the explosion. \u201cI hope you recover quickly.\u201d <\/p>\n The explosion comes just a few weeks after Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket flew for the third time ever. That mission suffered its own failure when the New Glenn upper stage failed to put an AST SpaceMobile satellite into orbit<\/a>, causing a total loss of the mission. Just last week, the FAA cleared New Glenn to fly again after Blue Origin completed an investigation into the cause of the failure.<\/p>\n Blue Origin has spent years developing New Glenn while it used its New Shepard program to test out smaller-scale sub-orbital rockets. While New Shepard has ferried a fairly regular cadence of wealthy people and celebrities (along with some science missions) to the edge of space, Blue Origin was constantly working in the background to develop a rocket that could put real commercial payloads like large satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n That work took a long time \u2014 longer than Blue Origin had anticipated \u2014 but finally came to a head in January 2025, when the company flew New Glenn<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n New Glenn appeared to be a fairly successful rocket right off the bat. It reached orbit during that first flight, though the booster stage exploded before Blue Origin could attempt to land it on a drone ship in the ocean.<\/p>\n Blue Origin was even more successful with New Glenn\u2019s second flight, though, in November 2025. During that mission the company launched twin spacecraft to Mars<\/a> for NASA. Blue Origin also landed its first booster stage during New Glenn\u2019s second mission.<\/p>\n That allowed the company to re-fly the booster on New Glenn\u2019s third mission, showing not only the ability to recover the first stage, but refurbish it for re-use \u2014 a critical step in reducing the overall cost of operating a launch business.<\/p>\n The re-used rocket booster had no problems flying again, and even landed a second time on one of Blue Origin\u2019s drone ships, during New Glenn\u2019s third mission in April 2026<\/a>. But the company experienced a cryogenic failure in the upper stage during mission three, which led to the loss of the satellite.<\/p>\n This upcoming fourth mission was supposed to be the first of 24 launches that Amazon has contracted Blue Origin for. Amazon is currently building out a competitor to SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellite internet network, which it calls Leo. On Wednesday, Amazon touted<\/a> its ability to rely on Blue Origin to build the network, calling New Glenn a \u201creusable, heavy-lift rocket.\u201d <\/p>\n Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch late Thursday that no Leo satellites were on board for this test. <\/p>\n Late Thursday, Congressman Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), who represents the district that is home to Cape Canaveral, wrote<\/a> on X that he had spoken with NASA administrator Jared Isaacman about the explosion. <\/p>\n \u201cI am grateful there were no reported injuries and thankful for the first responders, engineers, and launch crews who acted quickly. Praying for Florida\u2019s Space Coast and everyone involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\nA very new, late rocket<\/h2>\n