LIVE: Blue Origin rocket explodes on launch pad in Florida

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:02]lightning strike or or what have you or maybe a big car going by and uh then it was kind of um obviously a little concerning when you started getting reports that there there was a a massive incident out there at the the space center. So, you know, we were really praying that everybody was okay and it sounds like everybody is. Uh but unfortunately, these incidents remind us about how dangerous this this mission of space exploration is, >> right? And uh here in Titusville that that message resonates because uh every year we have a an astronaut memorial service. Not only the astronauts but the uh service members who worked out at the space that are lost their lives and their line of service to our country.

[00:00:44]So, you know, we we we take these incidents very seriously and, you know, we're obviously praying for for everybody involved and hopefully they can get to the bottom of what went wrong and that they can improve and and be ready to take it to the moon or wherever their next mission is.

[00:00:59]>> Yeah. And I mean, for you, mayor, to be, you know, you you know how important Titusville is to the entire nation because the space program happens here.

[00:01:08]to know that a rocket exploded on uh the launchpad. We don't know how bad the damage is. How are you feeling just knowing could this affect our journey back to the moon?

[00:01:23]Oh, well, you know, every journey there's always bumps in the road and I think, you know, with the the private sector, they're they're they're pushing the boundaries in in a very positive way and trying to get things done uh quickly. And I'm pretty sure they'll they'll bounce back uh very very fast because that's what the private sector does. If it was all government, they'd spend the next 10 years trying to figure out what happened.

[00:01:45]>> But the most important thing is that everybody's okay and that, you know, I'm sure they'll they'll bounce back pretty quickly.

[00:01:51]Have you ever seen something quite like this? Cuz I for sure haven't. And now I'm just scrolling on my feed absolutely mesmerized at the actual just depth of this rocket explosion. Had you ever personally seen something anything like this?

[00:02:08]>> Um, luckily not in my lifetime. I say not in my lifetime because I'm pretty sure I'm was born after the Challenger.

[00:02:17]You know, I was an infant during Colombia. Uh so you know but it is in kind of ingrained in in the DNA of the space coast where unfortunately tragedies like this have happened and uh you know they could happen again.

[00:02:31]>> Uh but at the end of the day it's about making sure that everybody's safe and doing what we got to do to make sure that you know we we push the envelope but make sure that nobody gets hurt in the process of doing so. And and so for that I I commend him. You know there was a a massive event but nobody was injured.

[00:02:49]Well, thank you so much, mayor, um, for speaking and sharing what you saw.

[00:02:59]>> Yeah. And I think just for me personally, just obviously seeing safety was something that Blue Origin was taking seriously. For us to see an explosion of that magnitude and then to be told very soon after all personnel is accounted for, that is striking. And I think that is showing that the private contractors that NASA is working with to get back to the moon, they are taking safety seriously. And ladies, we've also covered some explosions like this. When you think about the massive rocket SpaceX is building, Starship, it has exploded. We've put that on our screens.

[00:03:35]We've covered it happening. But what hits me differently is the fact that this happened in our backyard on our launchpad where we are often right near KSC, the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is our home. And so when we're seeing something like this happening, knowing how much time the workers spend, knowing it's our friends, our families that are making these programs happen, that's what I think has really just uh hit me hard, knowing that this wasn't states away on a different launchpad. This was right here where people that are driving home didn't know what had happened. Still weren't sure.

[00:04:15]Everyone's going to try to figure things out. So really happy that things are, you know, safe and everyone who was there is safe, but it is going to be a long road to recovery, trying to build back better. That's something that we've heard. Really understand what went wrong and then if NASA will be able to use New Glenn, to use Blue Origin, you know, what they need to see changes made going forward on our journey to the moon.

[00:04:43]>> Yeah, Esther, you're exactly right. We are all so happy to hear that everyone out there on the space coast is safe.

[00:04:48]But it's very unnerving to watch this video over and over again and think about this happening in our own backyard. Not far away at all.

[00:05:01]>> Absolutely. And my biggest concern, I think you guys have even mentioned it, is you know what's out there? Is there anything released into uh the air? Is there any, you know, fumes? So absolutely seeing it you just wonder what happened, how can something explode that much. So definitely just an unsettling situation I think for all of us.

[00:05:24]>> Yeah, hopefully we get many more answers tomorrow when the sun comes up and and people are out there evaluating the situation. Esther, thank you once again for being with us tonight. We really really appreciate it.

[00:05:38]>> Thank you guys.

[00:05:40]Well, Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket had just gotten the all clear to fly again just a few days ago. We want to go ahead and bring in another expert tonight. Dr. Ken Kramer joins us live now. Dr. Kramer, good evening.

[00:05:54]>> Hi. Thanks for having me.

[00:05:56]>> Absolutely. So, I know that you're traveling. You're not even at home right now. So, tell me, what was your initial reaction to this? Because I imagine your phone is just going off the hook right now.

[00:06:05]>> It is. I've got all the networks contacting me and I'm over in Vancouver on the other side of the country. You know, I I just talked to u your guys at Fox 35 a few interviews this week about Blue Origin and about the moon base and uh yeah, I got a call all of a sudden something happened. This this launch was supposed to happen in like one to two to 3 weeks. And what was going on tonight was a static fire test where they're loading propellant into the rocket, testing it to make sure it will work satisfactoryy and successfully whenever the launch does happen in a few weeks.

[00:06:45]Well, this is, you know, routine that they would that they would load the propellants. It's not and nothing in space is routine, but this is routinely done to make sure that rockets are ready. So for it to explode is extremely rare. Uh SpaceX did have something like this happen with a Falcon 9 about 10 years ago. Cause severe damage to their pad. So yeah, this is this is really shocking. This is a real setback. I did see some videos. It's it's awful. I've seen an explosion of a rocket before NASA Wallops on a cargo mission to the International Space Station about 10 years ago and and that was a setback uh for for Northrup Grumman at that time and um and then NASA only had one cargo provider. Oh, this is this is really bad. And and um you know NASA is counting on this new Glenn rocket along with SpaceX to launch the probes to the moon, the robotic landers and the human landers. And now it's all called into question. So we don't know how much damage there is at the pad, but there is definitely going to be a lengthy delay.

[00:08:02]And China's nipping on our heels. They have actually just announced the be the other day they were excelling accelerating their lunar program. So, so the consequences and the ramifications are really farreaching and it is really shocking because we want them to succeed. We need them to succeed. But it just goes to show nothing in space flight is ever routine. I always say we're on the the knife edge of disaster.

[00:08:31]I'm a chemist. I work with toxic chemicals and explosive chemicals for my professional life. So, I know you have to be careful and something has gone seriously wrong with some kind of leak that caused this explosion. And so, it's going to have to be investigated thoroughly to see what went wrong and then they'll have to rebuild the infrastructure and we don't know how long that'll be.

[00:08:54]>> Yeah, something went terribly wrong tonight. Ken, we know you have been covering space travel for a very, very long time. You are a wealth of knowledge. Do you have any guesses as to possibly what could have caused an explosion this large?

[00:09:11]>> Well, probably a fuel leak. They the engines were firing when this happened.

[00:09:17]And so you've got all that propellant on the rocket. And when there's a spark that's uncontrolled, it's all going to it's all going to explode. And so that's that's what you saw. This is what I saw 10 years ago. I was only two miles away, one and a half miles away when that happened. So this is why you have here on the space coast, the launch pads are many more miles away from populated areas so we don't have impacts to these population centers. When Starship comes here, now this is going to be a real problem cuz that is 10 times the Falcon 9 and about four times the power of of what exploded today. So, uh there's going to have to be a lot of rethinking.

[00:10:03]>> Wow.

[00:10:04]>> About Starship also. And that has its own problems. It was just grounded by the FAA yesterday. So, both these rockets are down that NASA needs for the moon program.

[00:10:17]>> Dr. Dr. Kramer, you know launch complex 36 in and out better than a whole lot of us around here. Realistically, looking at the damage here or what we presume the damage will look like tomorrow. How long do you think it will take to repair these things?

[00:10:32]>> Well, it'll be at least months. It's really hard to say because we don't know the extent of the damage. in the morning it'll be very visible because you you can see this pad from Jetty Park okay which is about uh you know five six seven miles away I don't remember the exact distance but you can see it on the horizon and so if if those lightning mass or that water tower is gone then you then you know there was extensive damage if they are still there then that's a good sign but it looks like there was damage to the infrastructure So, we'll just have to wait and see in the morning how serious it is. And then it's the tank farm that supplies all of this and the and the hanger to get everything ready and the confidence that people have to have in their systems.

[00:11:23]There's clearly something caused this leak and they're going to have to figure out >> what it was.

[00:11:30]>> Yeah. You touched on the starship that is supposed to eventually move from Texas here to the space coast. If that we know it already exploded in Texas and blew up that launch pad, what would have been the effects if that would have happened here instead of the new Glenn?

[00:11:48]>> Oh, hugely hugely more. And it's already terrible what happened this evening with Blue Origin. And like I said, it's about four times the thrust. 18 million pounds of thrust on the Starship versus about 4 million pounds for Blue Origin. So that's that's four times more. And I have said repeatedly to your people and and anyone who asks me, they got to perfect that rocket in Texas where there are a much more sparsely populated areas. Here, you know, we've got hundreds of thousands of people on the space coast um not too far away. And and if that thing explodes, there's going to be a tremendous pressure wave. And I have asked for this data and you know all we get back is press releases with no data in them at all. So SpaceX has to be much more forthcoming and Blue Origin too. Both these companies have to be much more forthcoming with actual data on what will happen in catastrophic circumstances cuz cuz we don't know and that's not a good thing. I'm all for space but it has to be done safely. Dr. Kramer, tell me this. What does this setback do for Blue Origin's credibility?

[00:13:08]>> I'm sorry. You have to say it again. A plane was just flying over.

[00:13:11]>> I'm sorry about that. Yeah, I'll repeat myself. With this setback, what does this do for Blue Origins credibility?

[00:13:19]>> Well, it certainly shakes the credibility, you know. It certainly does, but you know, there's a lot of competent people there and they they will recover. Um, you can't just give up when something goes wrong, but it also means that you have to redouble your efforts. Um, this is not like pumping gas into your car or airline operations the way some people like to think of it. It is not routine and it will never be routine for a long time. Chemicals are inherently dangerous and if you don't respect them, then this is the result that's going to happen.

[00:13:58]So, they're going to need to instill a do a lot of work, do a lot of uh thinking about what went wrong, and they have to then prove that their fixes are reliable and safe and robust to NASA and the FAA and the Space Force to make sure this doesn't happen again. Um, and that and that's what has to happen.

[00:14:22]That's the only way you can get confidence. uh back to your question uh in this company they've they've got to show that they're they've got to earn our trust and show that they are responsible. Any rocket company has to do that and SpaceX has to do it too because their rocket is also grounded to Starship because that first stage >> that did not come back to Earth the way it should have. the first stage engines um didn't fire right and so it plummeted into the into the Gulf and it was a hard splashdown and that is why the FAA grounded that rocket. So both the rockets that NASA needs are grounded and both companies need to prove that they can operate safely and reliably.

[00:15:12]>> Yeah, Dr. Ken Kramer, thank you so much for joining us here tonight, even with you being away. Thank you for taking the call and providing that insight.

[00:15:20]>> And this has tremendous impact on project Artemis 2. Okay. Delays for that. Our our astronauts landing on the moon, which we haven't touched on too much, but that's that that's the next step. Artemis 3 next year. If that actually happens, it'll probably be delayed even further now because both these rockets are in question, >> right? Both the rockets are now grounded at this point. All right, Dr. Kenneth Kramer, thank you again. We really appreciate you taking some time from Canada to be with us.

[00:15:51]And the owner of Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, released a statement tonight after that explosion. It says, quote, "All personnel are accounted for and safe. It's too early to know the root cause, but we're already working to find it. Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It's worth it." Well, there are a lot of people who saw this explosion out there. Video is just pouring into our newsroom right now and we're starting to hear from witnesses at this hour. Fox 35's Lissa Leon joins us live in Bvard County. So, Lissa, what are people out there telling you?

[00:16:31]Well, just to kind of piggy back off of what Esther said, the unnerving, the scary feeling, and that's exactly what we're hearing from people who were in the area at the time of the explosion.

[00:16:41]But they tell me that they're feeling that now because at first they saw it and they thought it's a sunset, it's a fire, it's a lightning strike. They couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was.

[00:16:52]Some even said it was business as usual, just another launch that maybe they just didn't know about until they recognized this was anything but usual.

[00:17:03]>> I was thinking maybe it was a launch or something like that, but I looked at the schedule and realized that the next launch wasn't until 9:00 a.m. in the morning. So, I figured something had to have been wrong. And as we continue to watch it, the explosion took off and really lit up the sky. It looked as if the sun was coming out.

[00:17:21]>> Santo that you just heard from said he also smelled sulfur in the area moments after. And there was another individual I spoke to that was at Jetty Park. He was fishing with his friends and he noticed the explosion. And there were workers at Jetty Park that told him, "Get down. Cover your ears. take safety.

[00:17:40]Certainly feeling rattled, not just from the impact of the explosion, but also just from the severity of what that could have meant for so many people. But of course, nobody was injured, and that is the good thing that we're hanging on to tonight. Now, of course, we want to still hear from you guys. We want to see videos. We want to see pictures. We want to hear and know what you saw. So, please continue to send them to us and contact us in the newsroom. But for now, Merisa Luan, I'll send it back to you.

[00:18:08]>> All right. Sounds like it was a very scary ordeal out there for a lot of people. Lissa, thank you. Well, that explosion was so massive that it was actually seen on radar. Fox 35 Storm Team meteorologist Noah Bergen is back with us tonight.

[00:18:22]>> This has just been incredible to watch.

[00:18:23]Noah, you can still see the smoke from the fire on radar.

[00:18:27]>> Yeah, that's right, Marisa and Lan. And it was seen sending a lot of debris out into the ocean as well, over the ocean, I should say. And Doppler radar can detect a lot of things, not just precipitation. It can also detect smoke and objects in the sky. We use it for tornado debris uh and hurricanes and within tornadoes. But this was the loop of the radar at the beginning at about 8:55 p.m. This is rain. And then look right here. That right there, that's not a rain shower. That's a debris cloud and a fireball. And you can see that fireball actually continued offshore uh for about 10 miles. Now, for perspective, pad 36 is right here. Uh, you heard our producer Kendall a little while ago. She's way down off the scope of the screen down closer towards Melbourne. How many miles away? It's interesting uh hearing and I've been trying to make a graphic. We'll get it to you tomorrow morning on the morning show about where this was felt uh and heard. Uh it appears as if there was a pretty big cut off somewhere about over here uh towards Coco. Well, once you got past about Port St. John, you saw you saw it well past Orlando, but in terms of the ground shaking and your house shaking, probably only about in this area down a little bit closer to Cocoa Beach and Rocklage, uh about 9 to 9:05 tonight. This was all the way from downtown Orlando. Um yeah, and what an hour and a half inland from earlier this evening. This was 9:00 coming up about an two hours ago. Uh two and a half hours ago now. This is from Cocoa Beach.

[00:19:55]You can see some of the smoke there off in the distance, too. So, a couple of facts. We've already covered a lot of this for you here. We've had a lot of great discussion and reporting here as we've been live. Uh, but the rocket was fully fueled. Now, the equivalent explosion in terms of TNT would be about 2 to 300 tons from what I'm reading uh and talking to people now right now. So, if you did some math and try to equate that to something more, you can envision um it' be about 500 Tomahawk missiles hitting the exact same spot at the exact same seconds. In terms of a nuclear bomb, uh about 150th of the bomb that was dropped in 1945. So, a 150th of that uh you can get a small nuclear bomb of this magnitude. So in terms of perspective, it looked like definitely that cloud that went up. Now the the interesting thing here is that this particular launch pad was also the previous record holder for the largest explosion in the history of Cape Canaveral back in 1965. So that pad has now had two of the largest on ground rocket explosions we've ever seen in the United States. Maris Lisa Lou, back to you.

[00:21:06]>> All right, Noah, we are going to continue to follow our breaking news after this quick break.

[00:23:48]We continue to follow breaking news tonight. A Blue Origin rocket exploded on a launchpad, but thankfully no one was hurt. This is a pretty scary situation for anyone who is in the area when this happened and even for those of us who are far away from it. So, we want to bring in one of the witnesses now. Uh Teddy, you were at work when this happened. Tell us, paint the picture for us when this all happened.

[00:24:12]>> Uh, well, so I was just working at uh my job. I work at Rusty Seafood and um uh in the port, but uh no, I was just sitting there and all of a sudden the sky just went completely bright and I I first thought I had was um there was no rockets today or anything. So, I turned around and all of a sudden, yeah, I saw the explosion and I pulled out my phone and just started recording and uh for the first when when it first happened and I was like, "What the heck?" It wasn't a rocket launch and I went to look and it it was something exploded.

[00:24:47]So, I just posted on my Snapchat and my Instagram, you know, what I just took a video and I saw it and uh my first thought was I hope everyone was okay and no one was there.

[00:24:58]>> But uh yeah, and um I luckily have a friend that works out there and everything. So, I had my girlfriend actually messaged him and I'm like cuz I was at work and I was like, "Hey, make sure he's okay." Um and they said it was a Blue Origin uh pad.

[00:25:14]So luckily and he said everyone was there was no one there. So l that I'm glad that happened. Nobody was hurt or anything but it was just crazy to see.

[00:25:26]>> Yeah. Did you feel the shake, Teddy? A lot of people who say they saw this, they also felt like a a shake, a vibration go through them.

[00:25:34]>> We did. I did. Um so it happened after like whenever they bring like a rocket back and like the land, then you feel the the soundwave hit after. So after the whole video uh I took and then minutes later uh well not minutes but seconds later you you heard it and all the windows just completely shook.

[00:25:53]>> Wow.

[00:25:53]>> And everything. And I I live beachside so being even closer to it Oh, I felt I felt the whole shaking and everything and my windows shake um when like uh they bring when the sonic boom comes. I feel in my windows and everything. But now actually experiencing it out there u at work even closer was even crazier.

[00:26:14]>> So Teddy, I don't know how long you've lived or worked out there, but have you seen anything like this before?

[00:26:21]>> No, I've only been I came here from Wisconsin like six years ago, but um I've I've saw I've heard and saw the um um sonic boom and everything, but not this close. So, like I've never seen anything explode or anything. Uh, so I mean that was just insane right there just looking at it. And my first thought was I hope no one was around there when it happened.

[00:26:46]>> Yeah, we're very thankful everyone was safe. But now Teddy that you've actually seen and experienced this. Do you have any concerns? Was it scary? Are you concerned about future rocket launches?

[00:26:58]>> No. No, I I'm I'm not concerned or scared because I mean look at their record. I mean, they've had how many launches and how many uh rockets go up without any failures or anything. I mean, one I mean, I look at it one out of 10. You you get that bare minimum, I'm sure if you look at statistics, this is very low. So, for for it actually happening and everything, it might have been just a fluke. Yeah, Teddy, with this uh anomaly happening this late in the evening, all the experts we've been speaking with tonight say that obviously tomorrow once the sun rises, that is when we'll be able to get an idea of the extent of the damage out there. Has your job said anything about uh work tomorrow?

[00:27:41]>> What has the response been from your job?

[00:27:45]>> Uh I don't want to get in trouble or anything, but nothing.

[00:27:49]>> Okay.

[00:27:50]>> No. No. Tomorrow's business as usual and come on in. And I mean, we usually we're the place to be to watch a nice rocket launcher. Well, anywhere in the port is where to be to watch a rocket launch and everything. So, I mean, as far as I know, just come in and enjoy some good food and good company. And we have a live band. Well, usually uh a live band outside and everything. Nah, just come on in and we're not worried. I mean, we're far enough away that Yeah. Nothing no nothing's going to happen in like that far away.

[00:28:25]>> Well, Teddy, I know being from Wisconsin, you have never seen anything like this before. I'm from Minnesota.

[00:28:30]Absolutely not.

[00:28:31]>> So, I Yeah, I agree. Absolutely not.

[00:28:34]I've never seen >> It has to be pretty like You have to be a little bit like, whoa, that this happened. Have you sent any of the videos to your family and friends back up north and have they reacted to it?

[00:28:46]Um, so I have a lot of friends from up north on Snapchat and everything and they're like, "What what what was that?"

[00:28:51]And I said, "Oh yeah, so since we got the rocket launches and everything." Um, and they're like, "What was that?" And I was like, "Apparently Blue Origin, uh, something happened over there." So, not really sure. I don't know all the facts or all that, but they were they just thought it was like the craziest thing to look at, >> right? And I was like, "Yeah, I mean, it's it's crazy, but I'm glad nobody, like I said, as far as I know, nobody was hurting anything, so that's all that matters." But, uh, no, they thought it was pretty crazy and crazy to look at.

[00:29:22]>> We still think it's pretty crazy to look at, actually, and we live here.

[00:29:26]>> That's what that's what I'm saying.

[00:29:27]Like, you know, like it's cool. I mean, I' i've been through blizzards and all the tornadoes and everything that they have, and then all we have is hurricanes and apparently rocket explosions.

[00:29:40]Well, you have a great attitude, Teddy.

[00:29:41]We appreciate you taking time to call in and talk with us here on Fox 35.

[00:29:46]>> Yeah, absolutely. Not a problem. Hey, come check out Rusty's. It's We just won 20 best restaurant 2025. So, >> I think What do you say, Maris Lisa?

[00:29:56]>> I say we can do it.

[00:29:57]>> All right. All right, Daddy. Thanks so much.

[00:29:59]>> Good food. All right. Have a good night, guys.

[00:30:01]>> You, too. Well, tonight we spoke to retired Navy captain and former NASA astronaut, Captain Winston Scott. Here's what he had to say about the explosion.

[00:30:10]Take a listen.

[00:30:11]>> Well, we've gotten to a place now where we take these things for granted, but uh if you you you all are too young to remember, and so am I. In the early days of uh our American space program, there were many many explosions of a brand new rockets under development. So, when these things happen now, they're so rare that we uh we and and we we should pay particular attention to them.

[00:30:34]The reason we do tests like this is to determine whether or not the engines are ready to fly. And obviously in this case, they're not. We have a failure.

[00:30:43]It's a very serious failure. But uh again, it's it's better to have it happen under controlled conditions like this, a a planned test, than to have it later on in flight. So yeah, it's kind of rare. It's very serious, but uh I have no doubt that the Blue Origin will recover and u they'll be ready for flight. I talk a little bit more about this. You know, for people in the audience who may not know, uh, this particular rocket, the New Glenn, uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Both of those things are highly explosive.

[00:31:12]And at the pad, they're kept separate from each other. And then they're loaded onto the rocket at the very last minute.

[00:31:18]And they're supposed to be ignited in a very, very controlled manner. Well, obviously something happened that was uncontrolled. We don't know whether there was a hydrogen leak, a liquid oxygen leak, whether the two leaked together, whether there was a stray spark. We don't think lightning hit it.

[00:31:32]There are lightning arresters at the pad. But was there lightning? Was there static electricity? So something ignited one or more of these propellants which caused the uh the explosion. It's just a very very difficult uh thing to nail down but they they will get to the bottom of it. Go ahead please with your question.

[00:31:50]>> So it sounds like there are several questions a whole list of questions right now. This is very preliminary. How long do you think it'll take before we get some of these answers?

[00:32:00]Oh my goodness. I think I believe that's going to be minimum months. It may more than likely months before we know what the final answer is. They will have a clue as to what happened uh potentially in a relatively short period of time because there were sensors feeding data back to a control center. So the first thing that will happen is that the engineers can review this data. They will be able to determine, for example, if there was a leak, maybe there's a big pressure drop. Maybe that's a clue or maybe there's a pressure rise or maybe there's a temperature rise someplace. So that'll be the first clue and then they'll track it down from there. So there'll be preliminary information probably soon within a few weeks, but the the final report may be months, maybe even a year from now before they know. Hopefully it will be relatively soon because we want to keep the program on track.

[00:32:48]>> Again, that was Captain Winston Scott.

[00:32:50]Well, people up and down the space coast watched in disbelief as that new Glenn rocket exploded. Fox 35's Bailey Bonover joins us live now. And Bailey, we just heard from a witness who works not too far from where this happened. He was in awe. So, you spoke with another witness.

[00:33:06]What did they have to say?

[00:33:10]>> Oh my goodness. First, wow, this is crazy. And I feel like at this point, no matter who you are, you can just open up social media and just be inundated with all the content from this explosion.

[00:33:21]Just so many people posting videos uh saying that they were in their homes and they felt like their homes were shaking.

[00:33:27]I spoke to one woman who said she found out because her kids started crying. Uh they were along the beach and their house started shaking and they look outside and it's just an orange glow.

[00:33:36]And that's shocking, right? But now at this point, you can go on social media and find that there was a rocket explosion. I spoke to one person who was on the beach at this time taking graduation photos. Here's what he had to say.

[00:33:51]>> We was chilling out on the beach.

[00:33:52]Jessica's son just graduated. So, they're taking proud parent pictures in the um water and stuff. And we just heard a big like boom. Sky went orange.

[00:34:01]It was crazy. Like big explosion.

[00:34:04]>> The whole sky looked like fireballs in the sky. It was cool.

[00:34:10]I I think it's fair to say that that some people thought it was cool. And at this point, since we know that nobody was hurt or injured, that that's fair to say. Um I I did ask if they got the graduation photos, they they said no.

[00:34:22]But at the very least, I think a lot of people were at least a little worried at first. They didn't know what it was. She told me um that it actually was silent when it went off and it was just an orange glow. So that's an interesting take.

[00:34:35]>> Marisa Luan.

[00:34:36]>> All right, Bailey, thank you. We appreciate that insight.

[00:34:40]>> Yeah, we've been getting live updates for the past what 2 and 1/2 hours now of this uh that has been going on out on Cape Canaveral. We're going to come back with much more after the break.

[00:37:08]We continue to follow breaking news tonight. A rocket exploded on the launchpad tonight. That was a new Glenn rocket by New Origin and it that was so massive that explosion people could feel it and see it and even it was caught on radar too.

[00:37:23]>> Yeah, it was. We want to bring in Fox 35 Storm Team meteorologist Noah Berin because Noah seeing that imagery on the radar was incredible.

[00:37:31]>> Yeah, Marisa too. One of the crazy things too is I'm sifting through some of the video on on social now and and there's a light some of the videos I I just saw. There's cloud to ground bolts of lightning like right next to where the the pad was. Like it it's just mind-blowing the amount of visual. The rocket thing looks like a nuclear bomb going off and then there's a flash of lightning. A lot going on out there tonight. You can see that was picked up by the radar earlier from the launch pad. All right, let's give you a quick weather update now before we um move too much further along here with that. Rainy season is back today on a different note. This was the view from Flaggler Beach. Look at that highly visual uh shelf cloud that came through Flaggler County earlier. There's the view from Titusville still. You can see some of the glow from that fire at the launch pad. All right, so the weather headlines. The rainy season is now here.

[00:38:20]We've got daily, afternoon, evening rain chances through next Wednesday.

[00:38:24]Everybody watching this is going to get some decent rain totals, probably on the order of four to eight inches of rain.

[00:38:29]Now, later next week, there could be some weak tropical development in the western Gulf. Good news for us right now is I think that would stay away from Florida if it happens at all. So, we don't have too much to worry about there. All right, temperatures on your Friday, upper 80s to near 90. Now, today we had some big storms in Valuchia and Seminal. Those of you, let's say in Bvard, uh you may be watching this going, "I thought it was going to storm and it didn't." Well, tomorrow probably is more for you. Uh as is often the case in the rainy season, there's the halves and the have nots. Well, today we had five inches of rain. Five in Holly Hill.

[00:39:05]There was a couple of roads closed earlier. That was the big winner.

[00:39:08]Tomorrow, it's going to be big storms northwest to southeast in the afternoon, especially north of Orlando. Let me show you that futurecast real quick. So, waking up in the morning, things are going to be dry. As we go through the day, we're going to watch the horizon to the northwest and late afternoon and the evening for some big thunderstorms. It does look like we'll have storms probably about six in Ocala and then there you go about 8:00 big storms coming through Orlando.

[00:39:35]>> You said is you saw lightning out there.

[00:39:37]Do you think that was lightning from mother nature or the rocket explosion caused the lightning?

[00:39:42]>> So, you know, it's funny you say >> great. Well, there actually was real lightning off in the distance. There was a thunderstorm offshore, but I one of my friends is a meteorologist who works out at Cape Canaveral. I asked if the the cloud that was created from the explosion could have generated its own lightning.

[00:39:58]>> Oh, >> because you know the cumulus cloud rule, we can't launch vehicles into clouds because it can generate lightning. I don't know if it was big enough to do that, but it's a very interesting weather question.

[00:40:08]>> So, they haven't responded to you yet?

[00:40:10]>> No. M >> well we will learn a lot more about this explosion in the days, weeks, months, probably years to come. Noah, thank you.

[00:40:18]And we'll have much more on this breaking news of the explosion at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Good Day Orlando starting at 4 a.m. Thanks so much for joining us tonight.