[Videos below.] Blue Origin suffered a major setback Thursday when its New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending a huge fireball and plume of smoke into the sky and dealing another blow to Jeff Bezos’ efforts to compete in the rapidly evolving commercial space industry.

Videos captured the dramatic blast as spectators watched in disbelief. The towering rocket was engulfed in flames moments after the test began, producing a massive explosion that prompted onlookers to exclaim, “Oh no!” and “Oh my God!”

Blue Origin later acknowledged the incident in a brief statement posted on X, describing the event as an “anomaly” and confirming that “all personnel have been accounted for.”

The accident adds to a growing list of challenges facing Bezos’ aerospace company as it attempts to establish itself as a major player in the race to dominate space transportation and exploration.

At the time of the explosion, the New Glenn vehicle was not conducting a launch. Instead, engineers were carrying out a standard static-fire test, a procedure in which the rocket’s engines are ignited while the vehicle remains anchored to the launch pad.

The failed test is particularly significant because New Glenn is expected to handle a wide range of future missions, including deployments of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband satellites, NASA cargo, and commercial payloads. No flight had been scheduled when the explosion occurred.

Bezos addressed the incident on social media, emphasizing that investigators are still working to determine what went wrong.

“It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it,” Bezos wrote on X.

“Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”

Standing 98 meters (321 feet) tall, New Glenn is Blue Origin’s flagship launch vehicle and a central component of the company’s long-term strategy to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose Starship rocket program continues to advance.

Musk responded to news of the explosion with a brief message expressing sympathy for the setback, describing the mishap as “most unfortunate.”

The latest failure follows another recent problem for New Glenn. Only weeks ago, the rocket fell short during a mission intended to place a communications satellite into its designated orbit, triggering a formal review.

Although the mission successfully recovered and reused a booster stage, the uncrewed flight was unable to deploy a satellite for AST SpaceMobile into the planned orbit.

Following that mission, the Federal Aviation Administration directed Blue Origin to undertake a “mishap investigation,” a review process that concluded earlier this month.

In comments released last week, the company said regulators had accepted its findings.

“The FAA has approved our NG-3 report, and corrective measures have been implemented,” Blue Origin said last week, explaining that thermal conditions caused one of the rocket’s engines to not achieve its full thrust, causing it to miss its target orbit.

Florida Congressman Mike Haridopolos, whose district includes Cape Canaveral, said he had been in communication with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman after the explosion.

“I am grateful there were no reported injuries and thankful for the first responders, engineers, and launch crews who acted quickly,” Haridopolos said.

The explosion comes as Blue Origin continues working with NASA on technology intended to support future Artemis lunar missions, including the development of a lunar landing system.

Isaacman confirmed that NASA was monitoring the situation and stressed the difficulty of building powerful new launch vehicles.

“Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult,” he wrote on 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.”

NASA’s current plans call for testing orbital rendezvous operations involving lunar landers in 2027, with a crewed mission to the Moon targeted before the end of 2028.

Whether those goals can be achieved on schedule remains uncertain. Both Blue Origin and SpaceX still face major technical hurdles, and many analysts in the aerospace industry have repeatedly questioned whether either company can meet the ambitious timelines required for upcoming lunar missions.

{Matzav.com}