{"id":710457,"date":"2026-06-02T17:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/710457\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T17:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:39:09","slug":"blue-origin-says-rocket-explosion-spared-fuel-tanks-and-key-launch-pad-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/710457\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin says rocket explosion spared fuel tanks and key launch pad parts"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin<\/a> said Tuesday that last week\u2019s rocket explosion<\/a> spared fuel tanks and some other critical parts of the launch pad.<\/p>\n

Critical to NASA’s Artemis moon program<\/a>, the company’s massive New Glenn rocket<\/a> blew up during an engine-firing test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. A lightning tower and the transporter-erector used to move and hoist the rocket were destroyed in the blast that sent shock waves across the state.<\/p>\n

CEO Dave Limp said the methane, hydrogen and oxygen tanks look to be in good shape. The water tank is also fine and the support tower that’s still standing can be repaired in place. A booster and other rocket parts housed nearby were not damaged.<\/p>\n

Overall, this was \u201ca bit of good news,\u201d Limp said in an X update, adding: \u201cWe will fly again before the end of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cause is still under investigation.<\/p>\n

Just two days before the accident, NASA awarded a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Blue Origin, choosing New Glenn rockets to launch a pair of rovers to the moon ahead of the arrival of the first Artemis moonwalkers who will drive them. New Glenn also is needed to launch the company’s Blue Moon lander that will be used to get astronauts to the lunar surface in the coming years.<\/p>\n

NASA is aiming for as early as 2028 for the first moon landing by astronauts since Apollo 17 in 1972.<\/p>\n

The space agency will \u201cdo all we can\u201d to get the pad back in action as soon as possible \u201cwhile staying extremely focused on progressing the lander,\u201d Administrator Jared Isaacman<\/a> said via X.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn line of reusable rockets \u2014 named after John Glenn, the first American in orbit \u2014 has launched only three times. It\u2019s not nearly as big as SpaceX\u2019s Starship that is making test flights to the fringes of space from Texas. NASA has ordered up Starships, in addition to Blue Moon landers, to get Artemis astronauts to the lunar surface in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin said Tuesday that last week\u2019s rocket explosion spared fuel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[257947,6086,49,48,21146,124180,76197,307,92413,257948,66,306],"class_list":["post-710457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-artemis-moon","tag-blue-origin","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cape-canaveral-space-force-station","tag-john-glenn","tag-lunar-surface","tag-nasa","tag-rocket-explosion","tag-rocket-parts","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}