Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explodes on launch pad in Florida

[riversedge]

Source: cbs news


By Miles Doran Updated on: May 28, 2026 / 9:48 PM EDT
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A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded Thursday night on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The explosion occurred at about 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Blue Origin said there were no injuries from the incident.

"We experienced an anomaly during today's hotfire test," Blue Origin said in a statement. "All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more."


Blue Origin was scheduled to fuel the rocket Thursday evening ahead of a planned test firing of the rocket's engines.

Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, successfully launched its third New Glenn Rocket last month.

This rocket was being prepared to launch the fourth New Glenn mission as soon as June 4 to launch 48 satellites for Amazon's Leo internet service, which competes with Elon Musk's Starlink.


Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-new-glenn-rocket-explodes-launchpad-florida/

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whow. the video shows a HUGE fire. I am surprised no one was hurt.

Link to tweet

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Blue Origin rocket explodes on launchpad in Florida
A Blue Origin rocket explodes on a launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. May 28, 2026. SPACEFLIGHTNOW

[BaronChocula]

1. You know what doesn't explode in a ball of fire?

Food for the hungry.

[Boxerfan]

2. When will they learn...

On Penis Rockets the Ballroom should always be located at the base of the shaft.

[peppertree]

33. Oh, my.

[Skittles]

3. "we experienced an anomaly"

ALRIGHTY THEN

[lpbk2713]

5. Sounds like corporate speak.

[Skittles]

7. right?!

LOL

[reACTIONary]

11. No, it's NASA speak....

....we have anomaly reporting policies, procedures, databases, etc. Anomalies can be relatively minor, or.... a fireball.

I'm concluding an anomaly investigation right now, and writing up an anomaly report for one of the missions I'm working on. NOT a fireball, however.

[Skittles]

19. yes, I do realize it is literally an "anomaly"

although CLUSTERFUCK may be a better description

[reACTIONary]

38. I don't see it that way....

..... This was a live fire test of the engines. The reason you do a test is to make sure something like this doesn't happen during an actual launch. Obviously, no one wanted something like this to happen, but the risk is real and by testing you "burn down" (so to speak. ) the risk to acceptable levels.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said "Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult. We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets."

That's the cost of doing business.

[mitch96]

35. "an unintended termination of function", a process malfunction...It's like when I worked in a hospital

We had an ICU patient come to our department. The ICU was short staffed so the Head nurse accompanied the patient.
During the procedure I asked about a different patient I had done the other day. She replied...
Oh he had an "unfortunate outcome"... I asked what that means and she whispered to me..He died.
Hospital corporate speak I guess...
m

[not fooled]

9. AKA "Rapid unscheduled disassembly "

f-eloon’s version.

[Attilatheblond]

16. Blue Origin speak for what Elon's Space X demurely calls

an unscheduled disassembly.

So cute how the boom boom bros can't bring themselves to call a snafu a fubar.

[oasis]

4. Dayum!

[niyad]

6. Such a pity that baldy was not on it.

[dickthegrouch]

8. I'm kind of curious

How far the shock wave extends from that kind of disaster.
It seems to me there's a difference between that kind of explosion and, say, the downward pressure exerted by a landing airplane which seems to be very limited in its effect. (The final scene of the movie "Pushing Tin" might have a good demonstration). I'm aware that "heavy" airplanes need more air clearance because of coriolis effects, but I don't have enough physics to explain why there isn't an equal and opposite reaction to the lifting of the airplane due to flow of air over its aerofoils.
I'll agree that there's a fundamental difference: there is particulate matter being ejected by the explosion, and none by the airplane. But it's still a non-trivial subject to research.

[Marie Marie]

10. Was this the same type of rocket he used when sending his gold digger wife and

the rest of the privileged ladies up into space?

[OnlinePoker]

24. No, those aren't flying anymore.

This was the New Glenn rocket which is Blue Origin's heavy lift moon rocket.

[Bev54]

12. Anyone know where Elmo is? Was he there with his binoculars watching?

[Prairie Gates]

23. This is Bezos, the other piece of shit

[Bev54]

31. I know who it is, he is in competition with Elmo and his Space Ex

[AZLD4Candidate]

13. Formed a mushroom cloud.

[Bengus81]

27. I thought Bush said that would be because of Saddam Hussein...

[pat_k]

14. At least it is not being reported as "a rapid unscheduled disassembly"

[Multichromatic]

15. Huh?!??! Blue Origin doesn't seem to be very good at this whole rocket thing. Maybe they should just leave it to NASA.

[sop]

26. NASA figured out how to launch one of these rockets, without it blowing up, about fifty years ago.

[C Moon]

17. They'll have to rename it Cape Carnival under trump.

[BidenRocks]

18. I'm sure that blast woke up a whole lot of satellites.

That looked nuclear with the mushroom.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

30. Satellites look for double flashes

Double flashes are specific to nuclear explosions. Mushroom clouds will occur with any big enough explosion. Plus its a rocket launch, every nuclear power was aware of it.

[not fooled]

20. Well, thank god he forces his employees to pee in bottles

Exploding rockets don't come cheap--takes a lot of denied restroom breaks for your employees to pay for one of these babies. Although I have s sneaking suspicion the U.S. taxpayer is on the hook for this one.

[LudwigPastorius]

21. How's that privatization of space working out?

[Polybius]

22. Pretty good for SpaceX

Not so much for Blue Origin.

[twodogsbarking]

29. They said they are having trouble getting it off the ground.

[twodogsbarking]

25. Great fireworks though.

[twodogsbarking]

28. Where I grew up they would say "it done blowed up".

[marble falls]

32. That blowed up real good ...

?si=ZbIOnx-SOLBRG8RH

[Rebl2]

34. I noticed to the

right of the Glenn rocket, before it attempted to take off, there is a large flame. Wonder what that was.

[BidenRocks]

36. Not a Take Off attempt, just an engine test.

Any flames would seem to be a fuel leak.
Rocket or Ground Support Equipment?
That's what they need to know.

[Mysterian]

37. It blowed up real good

[tonekat]

39. In the voice of Nelson Muntz

Ha-Ha!