{"id":466836,"date":"2026-05-29T22:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T22:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/466836\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T22:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T22:47:09","slug":"blue-origins-rocket-explosion-is-a-big-setback-for-nasas-moon-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/466836\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin\u2019s rocket explosion is a big setback for NASA\u2019s moon goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The giant explosion of a Blue Origin rocket<\/a> on Thursday evening is a major setback not only for Jeff Bezos\u2019 space company but also for NASA, as it could delay efforts to land astronauts on the moon and begin construction of a base on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

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The company must now reckon with the loss of one of its few New Glenn rockets, the destruction of its only operational launch pad for those rockets, and what could be months or years of investigation and delays before the booster can return to flight.<\/p>\n

NASA will face the same uncertainties. Blue Origin was expected to play a central role in the agency\u2019s return-to-the-moon program. The company has been competing with SpaceX to build lunar landers that can transport astronauts from Earth orbit to the moon. NASA planned to test one or both of those commercially built landers during its Artemis III mission next year. <\/p>\n

Three days ago, Blue Origin also won a major contract to carry two robotic landers to the moon<\/a> for NASA on missions scheduled to launch later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, it\u2019s a huge setback for Blue Origin,\u201d said Kathleen Curlee, a research analyst at Georgetown University\u2019s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. <\/p>\n

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote Thursday in a post on X: <\/a>\u201cSpaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a request for comment, the agency referred NBC News to Isaacman\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The accident occurred during an engine test at around 9 p.m. ET at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. In this type of test, called a static fire, a rocket is fueled and its engines are ignited to test the onboard systems, but the booster remains bolted to the launch pad and does not lift off. Space Force officials confirmed Thursday that all personnel were accounted for, and there were no injuries or deaths from the explosion.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s explosion created an enormous fireball that engulfed Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket and appeared to destroy much of the launch pad.<\/p>\n

The extensive damage to the pad was particularly jarring, said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy for The Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization that conducts research and advocacy to promote space exploration.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, rocket companies have blown things up a lot, but a pad explosion like this is rare,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to do this, because not only is the rocket destroyed and something\u2019s wrong with the rocket, but it destroys the infrastructure to launch these rockets into space. So this is a very messy situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The damaged launch pad is currently Blue Origin\u2019s only one for its New Glenn rocket. So even if the issue with the rocket can be quickly assessed and fixed, the company still might not have a pad from which to launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is complex infrastructure, and rebuilding a launch pad takes time,\u201d Dreier said. \u201cThere are limits on how fast you can move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Origin has begun preliminary work on a second launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but that project is in its infancy.<\/p>\n

Dreier said it\u2019s likely that Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket could be grounded for \u201canywhere from six months to two years\u201d as the company conducts a full investigation. NASA has said it will work with Blue Origin to investigate the anomaly and assess the impacts to upcoming missions.<\/p>\n

Bezos said Thursday on X<\/a> that it\u2019s \u201ctoo early to know the root cause but we\u2019re already working to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVery rough day, but we\u2019ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The giant explosion of a Blue Origin rocket on Thursday evening is a major setback not only for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-466836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}