Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Explodes During Testing in Florida

["Blue Origin's New Glenn mega-rocket exploded during a static fire test at a launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday evening. The explosion was captured on live streams from NASASpaceFlight.com and SpaceFlight Now, and later confirmed by Blue Origin. The company was preparing for the anticipated fourth launch of the new rocket in the coming weeks, which was supposed to carry Amazon's Leo internet satellites to space.

The rocket was likely fully fueled, contributing to what is one of the largest rocket explosions in U.S. history and the worst failure in Blue Origin's existence.", 'The explosion occurred around 9 pm ET (0100 UTC) as Blue Origin was beginning the static fire test of its New Glenn rocket. Blue Origin later said on social media that "all personnel have been accounted for," and founder Jeff Bezos wrote that they were "safe." The company didn\'t specify what went wrong, only that an "anomaly" occurred.

"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 wrote on social media.', 'The incident is likely to pause the New Glenn rocket program for an extended period while Blue Origin investigates the cause of the explosion.

The company had planned to attempt as many as 12 launches of New Glenn this year, after spending around a decade developing it in an attempt to compete with Elon Musk\'s SpaceX. Blue Origin is also supposed to help power NASA\'s Artemis missions to the moon, with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman saying the agency will "work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets."', 'The explosion comes just a few weeks after Blue Origin\'s New Glenn rocket flew for the third time ever. That mission suffered its own failure when the New Glenn upper stage failed to put an AST SpaceMobile satellite into orbit, causing a total loss of the mission.

Just last week, the FAA cleared New Glenn to fly again after Blue Origin completed an investigation into the cause of the failure. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, wrote on social media shortly after the explosion that it was "most unfortunate. Rockets are hard." He added, "I hope you recover quickly."', 'The setback is a significant blow to Blue Origin\'s ambitions, including its plans to launch national security missions for the Pentagon and support Amazon\'s Leo satellite internet network.

Amazon has contracted Blue Origin for 24 launches, but confirmed that no Leo satellites were on board for this test. Congressman Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), who represents the district that is home to Cape Canaveral, wrote on social media that he had spoken with NASA administrator Jared Isaacman about the explosion. "I am grateful there were no reported injuries and thankful for the first responders, engineers, and launch crews who acted quickly.