Fireball on the launch pad: Trouble for Bezos’ moon ambitions | DW News

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]There's been a well small setback for billionaire Jeff Bezos space company Blue Origin. Its latest rocket test ended with a fireball. The rocket blew up on the launch pad during a test. Blue Origin was preparing the rocket to deliver satellites into orbit. It comes just days after Blue Origin said it had won the contract from NASA to fly missions to begin constructions of a moon base.

[00:00:31]Well, earlier we spoke to the space expert and editor of NASAWatch.com, Keith Cowing, and I asked him when he saw the footage of this explosion, what did it tell him about what might have gone wrong.

[00:00:45]>> Well, last night was supposed to be what they call a static fire where they would test the rocket, see if the engines are okay. And normally, I wouldn't take the time to watch that. So the first thing I saw, the first news I had was this video that you're showing right now >> and uh in NASA parlance we would say that they did not have a good day.

[00:01:07]>> Yes, you could say you could say that there was I think a previous accident once was called by from the the other company was called an unscheduled uh I can't remember exactly what it was but it is not the first >> RUD. It's an a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Yes, >> that's what I meant. Perfect. I I love that. Now, now this is not the first setback for the new Glenn rocket. Do you see a pattern emerging there in Blue Origin's development process?

[00:01:40]>> Uh other than it's a new rocket and and you know, if you look at any video of a first launch, rarely do you see it work perfectly. There's always it's, you know, you test a little, you fly a little, you fix it, you try it again.

[00:01:54]Uh, the first couple launches were okay.

[00:01:56]They were just test launches. The third one had a second stage issue which, uh, in essence didn't put the satellite where it needed to be. And, uh, that was being worked on. And then this today or last night uh, is rather catastrophic.

[00:02:11]As a matter of fact, I I'd have to get the exact numbers, but uh this explosion is on the order of what a small tactical nuclear weapon like the blast that devastated Beirut. So, this is not insignificant. There's buildings nearby.

[00:02:26]The launchpad was damaged heavily.

[00:02:28]>> Uh significant setback for Blue Origin.

[00:02:32]>> Are those failures to be expected in developing a rocket?

[00:02:37]>> Yeah. uh more so in the past when we were, you know, just learning how to turn a a missile into an actual launch vehicle, but now um they tend to not happen as often, but when they do, it's just the same result. You lose the vehicle, you have to go back and fix things. Unfortunately, this has happened at a very bad, and you're going to ask me about this, a very bad time, uh where the launch last week of SpaceX's uh Starship was okay for a while. them the first stage had problems. So our federal administr a aviation administration shut that launch vehicle down. Now this one has failed. Both of them are needed for America's Artemis program to go back to the moon to launch one or the other or both uh lunar landers and so forth. So we're in a bit of a pickle right now uh with both vehicles having problems >> and a imposed deadline from you know the the race to beat China back to the moon.

[00:03:35]And I don't know that it's impossible, but it's a little bit more difficult or sporty as we would say.

[00:03:42]>> Now NASA relying on these two companies to provide the technical means to take people back to the moon. Is that the right policy, do you think?

[00:03:56]>> Yes, if you do it right. And having more than one option is usually the way that you say, well, if one doesn't work, the other will. That's how we went to the International Space Station. And we had SpaceX and Boeing. Uh SpaceX was was splendid in their their ability to do this and Boeing failed. So we had the option. Uh this time however it's um much larger, more complex vehicles and they both have problems. Um NASA's rocket, the SLS, space launch system is launched twice uh perfectly. Uh but it's very expensive and the reason they went with these private firms was inherently cheaper and they would put their own money into it. So you know there's a risk in all aspects of this technical and also programmatic and you know sometimes you get it right and right now it's um there's a lot of uh meetings going on and a lot of folks thinking you know is this the path to take? Do we need to change course? It's quite clear from our administration that we want to go back to the moon and we want to beat China there. So I'm just going to be interested to see what the solution is for you know this latest problem.

[00:05:01]>> Now you said there's lots of meetings going on. I really can imagine that.

[00:05:04]Jeff Bezos says uh they'll rebuild and continue. Realistically, how much time and money does a failure like this set them back?

[00:05:14]>> Um first of all, they both have both Bezos and Musk have infinite amounts of money for all intents and purposes and they're willing to spend it uh to get this moon exploration thing done. So, I I don't think I worry about that.

[00:05:29]schedulewise it's going to become an issue because one depends on the other and America depends on both and right now they again have problems and you know at some point NASA who ultimately pays the bills is going to have to make a decision how they're going to do this.

[00:05:45]They really don't have too many solutions uh available because they pretty much put them on the plate to do it the way they're doing it now. So >> um >> you know it's it's it is what it is.

[00:05:57]Rocket science unfortunately is difficult >> and this is actually rocket science.

[00:06:02]Let's not forget that. Now uh in this commercial space race is it becoming uh too aggressive pushing two companies and and and two CEOs actually uh against each other and and maybe risking things before they're fully ready >> maybe. But you know if you look at how we've gone from government programs to private sector I mean you look at the commercial air travel uh that went from you know airplanes made out of doped canvas and you know the you know the way that they barnstormed as we called it to commercial airlines. There were some uh robber barons so to speak that uh you know pioneered panam and some TWWA and some of these other airlines that's all fallen away now and we have what we have. I I suspect that this is part of the growing pains of what we take to, you know, take our interest in going into space beyond just one flight now and then to something that's routine.

[00:07:02]>> So, I guess you need the big egos at some point and eventually one of them will figure it out and then somebody else will say, "Hey, wait, I can do it cheaper."

[00:07:11]>> Keith Caring there, editor of NASAWatch.com.

[00:07:15]Thank you very much, Keith.

[00:07:17]>> My pleasure.