Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes on pad, topples lightning tower [Update: No injuries]

During a pre-launch static fire, a fully stacked rocket for Blue Origin’s fourth New Glenn rocket suffered a failure, leading to its destruction and damage to the launch pad’s infrastructure.

The explosion took place at LC-36, Blue Origin‘s New Glenn launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin’s goal was to complete a pre-launch static fire, where the rocket’s booster is fueled and its engines ignited for a short duration. This is usually the final test before getting ready to launch.

Just before 9:00 PM ET, the New Glenn booster named “No, It’s Necessary” exploded before the static fire could be completed. It is unknown how far along in the static fire process the test was before the explosion.

The massive fireball was seen from various media streams of the test that quickly made its way to social media. About 30 minutes after the explosion, Blue Origin made a short comment on their X account saying, “We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.”

Space Launch Delta 45 reports no injuries or fatalities from the incident.

The brand new booster and its second stage were lost in the explosion. Also, one of LC-36’s lightning protection towers was seen falling over after the incident. There is likely extensive damage to the large pad complex at LC-36, with several hangars, buildings, and test sites located around it.

What was not included on the rocket stack was the mission’s payload, a stack of Amazon Leo satellites it was planning to launch next week. This would have been Blue Origin’s fourth mission and a pretty important one, with Flight 3 suffering a loss of the payload due to an anomaly on New Glenn’s second stage.

So far, New Glenn has had a stellar start to its career when it comes to the first stage. The rocket and its BE-6 engines have had no issues and stunned the industry with Blue Origin successfully landing and relaunching its booster on its second and third missions.

With the damage to the pad and the need to investigate what caused this explosion, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is likely grounded for the near future, with next week’s LEO flight most definitely no longer on the table.