Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

Disaster for New Glenn!

They were conducting a NG static-fire at Pad 36 at Cape Canaveral and something went dramatically wrong, causing New Glenn to violently explode with shock waves and a huge fireball.

Eric Berger comments that this could delay Blue Origin for a year or even more, which will definitely impact the NASA Moon Base launches that hoped to use New Glenn to launch Blue's Mk.1 cargo lander later this year.

https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/2060168648426242444

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This is probably the largest explosion in Cape Canaveral history.

Emergency responders are on the scene. Everyone is accounted for and there are no reports of injuries or fatalities. The fires seem to be dying down but there's still lots of smoke.

But the pad is probably totally wrecked... Blue will have to rebuild their pad the way that SpaceX had to rebuild Masseys after the S36 explosion. And it's the only New Glenn pad that Blue Origin has/had.

The Space Force says that the Eastern Range is still fully operational. There isn't any known damage to the other Cape Canaveral pads.

Eric Berger is on the case!

https://arstechnica.com/spaceA/2026/05/b...fire-test/

Eric says:

The most spectacular rocket explosion since N1 just happened in Florida
New Glenn was due to play a starring role in NASA’s Artemis Program...

The failure of New Glenn also has major implications for NASA and its surging efforts to return humans to the Moon before the end of this decade, and to establish a lunar base on the surface.

On Tuesday NASA announced that it had selected the New Glenn rocket to deliver the first two rovers, built by Lunar Outpost and Astrolab, to the lunar surface in 2028. Blue Origin has developed its own cargo lunar lander, Blue Moon Mark 1, designed to fly on top of New Glenn. It was due to launch this fall to the Moon for the first time, and again next year carrying the VIPER rover to the Moon for NASA...

It is too early to determine the impacts from this failure, but they will be considerable. Early reports from sources suggest that the launch infrastructure at LC-36A is severely damaged. A source indicated that one of the lightning towers may not be salvageable, and that the transporter-erector may also be damaged beyond repair.

The company recently began construction on a second New Glenn launch site nearby, LC-36B. However work there is in its early stages. It is possible, however, that completing this new launch tower may be faster than rebuilding LC-36A. New Glenn almost certainly will not launch again in 2026, and frankly a launch during the first half of 2027 would be heroic given the launch site concerns..."