Blue Origin rocket explodes during test at Cape Canaveral

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]It was like something out of a disaster movie. A massive fireball erupting, lighting up the night sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida. A Blue Origin rocket exploding on the launchpad.

[00:00:11]Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos says all personnel are safe. No one was on board.

[00:00:16]The company says the rocket experienced an anomaly during an engine test for the massive 320t tall New Glenn rocket.

[00:00:22]Other views of the explosion show the blast turning night into day, sending a massive shock wave rippling through the air. The sound of the explosion taking nearly a minute to reach the camera.

[00:00:36]Before the explosion, two towers could be seen, one on either side of the rocket to protect it from lightning. But now, only one tower remains. Residents in the area who've grown accustomed to space launches and failures say this one felt different.

[00:00:51]>> That is crazy and not normal. This one was more of like like more of a violent shake. Um, so we were all like, "Whoa, that's different."

[00:01:02]>> Jeff Bezos saying, "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.

[00:01:12]Elon Musk, the CEO of competitor SpaceX, saying, "Most unfortunate, rockets are hard." The explosion comes just days after NASA announced a nearly $500 million contract with Blue Origin to carry out various missions to the moon, including the deliveries of a lunar lander and lunar rovers using a new Glenn rocket.

[00:01:30]>> Blue Origin had emerged as really a key player in NASA's efforts to return to the moon and and and really compete with China in that regard. Um, and so this is this is pretty devastating to that that effect and and it honestly it just increases the pressure on SpaceX to perform with its Starship vehicle. It's it's a lot of NASA's eggs are now in just a single basket.

[00:01:55]>> Experts now predict delays, citing the loss of the rocket, but also the loss of the launchpad, which is the only one equipped to launch the new Glenn.

[00:02:03]>> It takes more than a year to build these. These are these are probably multiundred million dollar to billion dollar facilities and my early reports are that there's severe damage at the launch site. It's going to take them a long time to rebuild that site. Now they they have started work on a second launch site very nearby. It's not clear how much damage was done there.

[00:02:23]>> NASA Chief Jared Isaacman saying, "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." The rocket was set to launch a set of Amazon satellites in the coming weeks, but they were not on