Blue Origin regains access to launch pad after New Glenn explosion
Blue Origin officials have been able to get a closer look in recent days at the site where the company's towering New Glenn rocket exploded in a dramatic fireball that rocked Florida. The explosion occurred as Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company prepared to use the rocket to launch a batch of satellites into low-Earth orbit for Amazon, which the billionaire also founded. While the rocket was completely destroyed, it's the damage to the launch pad itself in Cape Canaveral that has officials the most concerned. Not only was a New Glenn rocket due in 2026 to launch from the site to send an uncrewed lander to the lunar surface for NASA, but it would have been part of a critical test flight in 2027 known as Artemis III to set the stage for a human moon landing. Because Blue Origin has nowhere else to launch New Glenn as of now, determining just how much work is ahead in repairing the site will have enormous implications for not only its commercial partners, but the pace of NASA's Artemis moon missions. Here's what to know so far in the aftermath of the late-May explosion. Blue Origin regains access to launch pad after New Glenn explosion Blue Origin officials have regained access to the launch pad in Florida to begin surveying the extent of the damage resulting from when one of its rockets exploded May 28 during a prelaunch test. Standing at 322 feet tall, the New Glenn rocket is a heavy-lift launch vehicle designed to transport a variety of commercial and civil payloads – like satellites – to orbit. Ground teams were performing an important test known as a hot fire in preparation for what would have been New Glenn's fourth flight when the rocket exploded in a violent fireball widely seen around Florida. No one was injured, but the explosion completely destroyed the fully stacked rocket, composed of both a first-stage booster that provides the initial burst of thrust at liftoff, as well as a second-stage vehicle designed to fly in orbit. After beginning assessments Saturday, May 30, company leaders are only now getting a full picture of the damage to Launch Complex 36 – a site at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station that Blue Origin previously invested $1 billion to rebuild. A cause has not yet been determined. NASA head Jared Isaacman visits site of Blue Origin explosion Jared Isaacman, the administrator of NASA, also visited the site of the Blue Origin explosion to assist in surveying the extent of the damage to the launch site. Isaacman said in a post on social media site X that he spent time talking with billionaire Jeff Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, as well as Dave Limp, the spaceflight company's CEO. 'I appreciated the opportunity to hear directly from those working through the aftermath and better understand the challenges ahead,' Isaacman said in the post. NASA had been relying on the New Glenn rocket for missions under its Artemis campaign, which seeks to return astronauts to the moon and construct a lunar outpost to enable a longterm presence. The rocket not only was due to launch Blue Origin's uncrewed lunar lander to the moon later in 2026, but was due to be part of a crewed mission known as Artemis III. Slated for 2027, that mission entails NASA launching a crew of astronauts to Earth orbit, where they would dock with one or both commercial lunar landers being developed by both Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX. While the astronauts would launch in an Orion capsule atop NASA's Space Launch System rocket, Blue Origin was due to use its New Glenn rocket to transport its lander to orbit, while SpaceX would use its Starship. Isaacman acknowledged that much work is ahead, but reaffirmed NASA's commitment to helping Blue Origin recover from the disaster and get Blue Origin launching again. 'America’s greatest achievements in space were never the result of avoiding setbacks,' Isaacman said. 'They came from overcoming them.' Some important hardware, infrastructure spared from damage Limp has also noted some good news: Rocket hardware stored in the nearby integration facility appear undamaged, including another first-stage booster used in two previous missions and three second stages. Some infrastructure was also undamaged, including the propellant farm where the rocket's fuel is stored and distributed, as well as the water tower critical for sound suppression and fire prevention during launch, Limp said in his latest update on social media. While Limp noted that the launch tower that supports the rocket when it’s vertical is damaged, he said, 'it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced.' Blue Origin CEO says New Glenn will fly before end of 2026 The New Glenn rocket had been due to fly as early as the first week of June on its fourth mission after a January 2025 debut. The flight would have been the first time Blue Origin launched the rocket to deliver a batch of Amazon Leo satellites for a constellation aiming to compete with the likes of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet business. Because Blue Origin had not integrated that payload prior to the hot fire test, those satellites were unharmed in the explosion. But because no other launch facilities in the U.S. are built to accommodate a New Glenn launch, that mission – and others using the rocket – are indefinitely postponed. 'We will fly again before the end of this year,' Limp promised, adding the Latin phrase 'Gradatim Ferociter,' meaning 'step by step, ferociously.' Blue Origin explosion detected on Richter Scale as earthquake When the New Glenn rocket exploded, it created a shockwave not unlike an earthquake that could be felt as far as 135 miles away, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A report from the USGS National Earthquake Information Center showed that three separate seismographic stations, which are used for detecting earthquakes, detected the explosion, the farthest of which was in Clearwater, Florida. The shockwave resulting from the explosion also measured 2.5 on the Richter scale. Though it produced seismographic activity, the explosion can't technically be classified as an earthquake since it was above ground.
Source: USA Today