Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, faced a setback last night when its rocket exploded on the platform. It was supposed to launch over 40 satellites, but that plan has now been canceled. The good news is that no one was hurt in the explosion, which was pretty wild. Blue Origin said that an “anomaly" occurred before the launch. The repairs will be extensive (via NYT):
Blue Origin's New Glenn just blew up at LC-36 while attempting to Static Fire ahead of NG-4.https://t.co/tANS0dWyIH pic.twitter.com/PztxFoBqIw
— NSF - NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) May 29, 2026
🚨 JUST NOW: Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket has EXPLODED into a MASSIVE fireball on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral in Florida
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 29, 2026
It literally looks like a NUCLEAR BOMB went off.@ElonMusk responded: “Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.”
Insane to watch. pic.twitter.com/UI4QjkmLzS
The explosion occurred at about 9 p.m. during a test being conducted in advance of an upcoming launch.
“We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test,” Blue Origin reported on social media. “All personnel have been accounted for.”
The test was to fire the seven engines in the booster stage, while keeping the rocket firmly held down on the launchpad. Flames began rising up the sides of the rocket and a massive explosion enveloped the launchpad.
The fireball badly damaged the launchpad and surrounding equipment at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It is the only launchpad that Blue Origin has for its 322-foot-tall New Glenn rocket, which is named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. Repairs will most likely take months, at the least.
The rocket had been set to carry 48 satellites for Amazon’s internet constellation, Leo, an acronym for “low-Earth orbit.” Leo is a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink network. The Amazon satellites were not onboard.
“It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it,” Mr. Bezos wrote on social media. “Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
Mr. Bezos’ billionaire space competitor, Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, expressed sympathy: “Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly,” he wrote on X.
Onward, I guess.
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