Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Explodes During Static Fire Test in Florida – Major Setback for Bezos

Blue Origin’s New Glenn mega-rocket exploded during a static fire test at a launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to livestreams from NASASpaceflight.com and SpaceFlight Now. Blue Origin later confirmed the explosion.

Jeff Bezos’ space company was conducting the static fire test ahead of an anticipated fourth launch of the new rocket, scheduled in the coming weeks to cARRy Amazon’s Leo internet satellites to space. The rocket was likely fully fueled at the time, making this one of the largest rocket explosions in U.S. history and the worst fAIlure in Blue Origin’s existence.

Blue Origin said in an X post on Thursday evening that “[a]ll personnel have been accounted for,” and Bezos wrote that they were “safe.” The company did not specify what went wrong, only stating 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.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a late Thursday post that 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.”

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told TechCrunch it was aware of the explosion and confirmed “no impact to air traffic.” NASA and the Space Force did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The explosion occurred at APProximately 9 p.m. ET (0100 UTC) as Blue Origin began a static fire test of New Glenn at Launch Complex 36.

The explosion likely forces Blue Origin to pause the New Glenn rocket program for an extended period while investigating the root cause. The company had planned up to 12 New Glenn launches this year, following nearly a decade of development to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Blue Origin is also slated to help power NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon. Earlier this week, NASA highlighted Blue Origin’s expected role in that program. Isaacman said Thursday that NASA will “provide any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.”

Blue Origin has also been aiming to launch national SECurity missions for the Pentagon.

“Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard,” Elon Musk wrote on X shortly after the explosion. “I hope you recover quickly.”

The explosion comes just weeks after New Glenn’s third flight, which suffered its own failure when the upper stage failed to put an AST SpacEMObile satellite into orbit, resulting in a total mission loss. Just last week, the FAA cleared New Glenn to fly again after Blue Origin completed an investigation into that failure.

A very new, late rocket
Blue Origin spent years developing New Glenn while using its New Shepard program for smaller sub-orbital flights. New Shepard has carried wealthy indiViduals, celebrities, and science missions to the edge of space, but Blue Origin worked in the background to develop a rocket capable of delivering large commercial payloads to orbit.

That work culminated in January 2025 with New Glenn’s first flight. The rocket reached orbit, though the booster stage exploded before Blue Origin could attempt a drone ship landing.

New Glenn’s second flight in November 2025 was more successful, launching twin Mars spacecraft for NASA and achieving Blue Origin’s first booster landing. That allowed the company to re-fly the booster on New Glenn’s third mission in April 2026, demonstrating recovery and refurbishment for re-use — a key cost-reduction step.

The reused booster performed flawlessly and landed a second time, but a cryogenic failure in the upper stage during the third mission led to loss of the satellite.

The planned fourth mission was to be the first of 24 launches contracted by Amazon for its Leo satellite internet network, a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink. On Wednesday, Amazon touted New Glenn as a “reusable, heavy-lift rocket.” Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch late Thursday that no Leo satellites were aboard during this test.

Late Thursday, Congressman Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), who represents the district containing Cape Canaveral, wrote on X 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. Praying for Florida’s Space Coast and everyone involved,” he said.