A New Glenn rocket test at Kennedy Space Center ended with an explosion that destroyed the launchpad seconds after a scheduled hotfire began. A fireball and orange sky were visible from locations along Florida’s Atlantic coast, and shockwaves were reported across the space coast and as far north as South Carolina. Blue Origin reported that all employees were accounted for, safe, and uninjured, while describing the event as an anomaly. NASA stated it would conduct a full evaluation of timelines after the explosion and assess near-term impacts to Artemis and a planned $20bn lunar base. Blue Origin said it was working to determine the root cause and planned to rebuild and resume launches.
"A massive fireball engulfed and destroyed the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center seconds after the start of the scheduled hotfire test at 9pm ET, and an orange sky was visible in Fort Pierce, 185km (115 miles) to the south. Bezos, the Blue Origin founder, tweeted that all his company's employees were accounted for, safe and uninjured, but lamented a very rough day."
"On Tuesday, Nasa announced that Blue Origin had won the contract to launch the first of three planned missions this year to begin construction of its $20bn moon base. It is also in competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide a lunar lander for the Artemis IV mission planned for 2028 that will see astronauts land on the moon for the first time since 1972."
"Jared Isaacman, the Nasa administrator, posted to X that a full evaluation of that timeline would be conducted after the explosion, which Blue Origin described as an anomaly. Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult, he wrote. We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets."
"Bezos, in his tweet, said: 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."
Read at www.theguardian.com
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