Blue Origin‘s New Glenn rocket exploded on the pad at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday night during a pre-launch static fire test, destroying the vehicle and dealing the sharpest setback yet to Jeff Bezos’s bid to compete with SpaceX in the commercial launch market.
The explosion occurred at approximately 9 p.m. ET on May 28. Blue Origin confirmed the incident in a statement posted to X: “We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.” Space Launch Delta 45, the US Space Force unit responsible for the Eastern Range, confirmed no injuries or fatalities among personnel.
The blast sent a towering fireball visible from East Orlando and appeared to topple one of Launch Complex 36’s lightning protection towers. Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said emergency management and fire rescue were monitoring the scene and planned to allow the contained fire to burn itself out, with no danger or threat to the surrounding community.
“All personnel are accounted for and safe. It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it,” Bezos posted shortly after.
A static fire involves igniting a rocket’s engines at full thrust while the vehicle remains bolted to the launch pad. Blue Origin was conducting the test to certify New Glenn ahead of NG-4, its fourth mission, scheduled to launch as early as June 4. Blue Origin had not loaded the 48 satellites aboard the rocket for the test.
TechCrunch reported that the rocket was likely fully fueled, which would have significantly magnified the force of the explosion, describing it as potentially one of the largest rocket explosions in US history and the worst failure in Blue Origin’s existence.
Amazon designated NG-4 the first of 24 launches it has contracted Blue Origin to fly for Amazon Leo, its satellite internet service competing directly with SpaceX’s Starlink. CBS News noted that Amazon had publicly touted its reliance on Blue Origin just the day before, calling New Glenn a “reusable, heavy-lift rocket.”
The third mission, in April 2026, had already ended in failure when a cryogenic leak froze a hydraulic line, caused a thrust anomaly in the second-stage burn, and left an AST SpaceMobile satellite in the wrong orbit. Losing the NG-4 vehicle on the ground before it ever launched sets the Leo program back further and deepens questions about Blue Origin’s reliability as Amazon races to build out its constellation.
NASA reopened its Artemis III Human Landing System contract after SpaceX fell behind on Starship development, explicitly naming Blue Origin as a potential competitor with its Blue Moon lander. That opening may now close before Blue Origin can walk through it.
Launch Complex 36 is New Glenn’s only pad. Unlike SpaceX after its 2016 AMOS-6 static fire explosion — which pivoted immediately to LC-39A and returned to flight within four months — Blue Origin has no backup. Wikipedia records that SLC-40 itself took 15 months to repair after AMOS-6, and Blue Origin faces that same timeline with nowhere else to launch.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told lawmakers in April that both SpaceX and Blue Origin had informed him their landers would not be ready until late 2027. Blue Origin was already behind. A 15-month pad repair would push any New Glenn return to flight into late 2027 at the earliest — leaving the company unable to build the flight record NASA would need to award it a crewed lunar mission over a competitor that, despite its own delays, still has operational launch infrastructure.
Space Launch Delta 45 said the Eastern Range remains fully mission capable and continues to support operations at all other launch complexes on the station.
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