Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes: NASA responds to impact on lunar base mission

Jeff Bezos-owned company has suffered a major setback as Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on launchpad, turning a rocket into a massive fireball.

The tragic incident occurred in Cape Canaveral, Florida, during the test flight. Seconds after a scheduled "hotfire" test began at 9:00 p.m. ET, a massive explosion obliterated the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center, casting an orange glow across the sky as far south as Fort Pierce, 115 miles away.

Taking to X, Jeff Bezos posted, “We experienced an anomaly during today's hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.”

Talking about the true nature of the anomaly, Bezos said "It’s too early to know the root cause, but we’re already working to find it."

The recent explosion proved a roadblock for the company's growing ambitions to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Moreover, this mishap is also expected to impact NASA’s upcoming $20 billion lunar base mission.

This is the same rocket, New Glenn, the company is aiming to use to launch landers on the moon for NASA. Subsequently, these landers will take astronauts to the lunar surface in a major push for the Artemis mission.

Soon after the explosion, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman posted on X, “NASA is aware of the anomaly that occurred tonight at Launch Complex 36 involving Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult.”

He further pledged to work with the company and partners to conduct a comprehensive investigation of this anomaly along with assessing near-term mission impacts and getting back to launching rockets.

Speaking about the potential impacts of this setback over NASA lunar base mission, he said, “We will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.”

The rocket holds a significant importance for NASA’s lunar missions as the space agency awarded Blue Origin $230.4 million for each of its first two moon base missions on Tuesday. But NASA would fund the operations largely.

NASA is set to launch three uncrewed lunar missions in 2026 to start the construction of the base on the moon.

The project will consist of a step-by-step process, allowing the delivery of rovers, cargo landers and technology demonstrators first before building a base between 2029 and 2032 with semi-permanent human existence.