Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded in a massive fireball during an engine-firing test at a Florida launch pad late Thursday, forcing the company to halt preparations for a satellite mission planned for next week.
The explosion occurred around 9 p.m. local time at Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral during a hot-fire test, in which rocket engines are fired while the vehicle remains anchored to the ground. Dramatic visuals circulating on social media showed the 321-foot-tall rocket erupting into flames, lighting up the night sky and shaking nearby homes in Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach.
Blue Origin confirmed that the company had “experienced an anomaly” during the test and said all personnel were safe.
"It's too early to know the root cause but we're already working to find it," Bezos said via X. "Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It's worth it."
The company said no injuries were reported and emergency responders remained at the site for more than an hour after the blast. Brevard County Emergency Management said there was no threat to the public from fumes or other hazards.
The US Space Force said officials were evaluating available data to determine the exact cause of the incident, while the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clarified that the test “was not within the scope of FAA licensed activities” and that there was “no impact to air traffic.”
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the space agency would support the investigation into the incident and assess its impact on upcoming missions.
"Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult," Isaacman said via X. “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."
New Glenn, developed over nearly a decade at a cost of billions of dollars, is Blue Origin’s flagship heavy-lift rocket designed to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon fleet and the more powerful Starship system. The reusable rocket is also central to Blue Origin’s ambitions to support NASA’s Artemis moon programme.
The explosion comes weeks after the rocket was grounded following an engine failure that left a satellite in the wrong orbit during only its third flight. Blue Origin had been preparing to launch a prototype lunar lander later this year and recently secured a NASA contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to launch lunar rovers for future Artemis missions.
The rocket was scheduled to launch a batch of Amazon Leo internet satellites next week. Meanwhile, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket is still expected to launch a similar batch of satellites from another pad at Cape Canaveral on Friday night.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk also reacted to the incident, posting on X: "Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly."
Named after astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, New Glenn made its debut in 2025 and is significantly larger and more powerful than Blue Origin’s New Shepard rockets that carry tourists to the edge of space from Texas.