Many in Europe woke up today to the impressive live footage of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploding, as you can now rewatch below:
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The incident occurred during a static-fire test at the Cape Canaveral facilities, with Jeff Bezos's company describing it as "an anomaly during an engine test" due to unknown, still under-investigation causes, while confirming all employees were safe.
Other than the logistic and financial impact, the accident could affect both Blue Origin's launch schedule and other companies' consequent space initiatives. With the destroyed launch pad being the only one the company has for New Glenn, and with repairs potentially taking months, it'd jeopardise the launch of Amazon's Leo internet satellites, which at the same time plan to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX and the Starlink service.
But besides the 48 satellites the rocket was meant to carry, the New Glenn system is also core to Blue Origin's Blue Moon lunar lander plans for NASA. Depending on how grave the launch pad damage is deemed, it could severely hit two schedules at once: Bezos's satellite deployment and NASA's ongoing Artemis roadmap, shortly after the historic milestone April's Moon flyby was.
Furthermore, Blue Origin has contracts linked to subsequent future lunar missions, including taking new rovers to the Moon in 2028. Therefore, NASA also wants to assess the impact on Artemis and lunar base plans, but only after a crucial full investigation.