Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket explodes on launch pad
Watch the moment a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket dramatically explodes on the launch pad during a test run.
The explosion marks a setback for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space venture as it seeks to narrow the gap with its competitor, Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The video, posted by NASASpaceflight — a YouTube channel that livestreams launches from Florida — showed the New Glenn igniting on the pad before erupting into a massive fireball that billowed skyward, sending a towering plume of flames and smoke into the air.
Blue Origin has reportedly spent billions of dollars and about a decade developing the 29-storey-high rocket, with a reusable first stage meant to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon fleet and its more powerful Starship.
The rocket is named after former astronaut John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the Earth.
The team said it had experienced an “anomaly”, a term commonly used by rocket companies to describe a launch failure or explosion, and confirmed “all personnel have been accounted for”.
Musk responded on X to a video of the New Glenn explosion, saying: “Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.”
Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-rocket-explosion/lnxu7ctla+
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