Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded in a pre-launch test at Cape Canaveral on Thursday, May 28, 2026.
The rocket erupted in a giant fireball that engulfed the launch pad at 21:00 EDT (0100 UTC) when the engines were ignited for a pre-launch test.
New Glenn had planned to launch a batch of satellites for another Bezos project, Amazon Leo, as early as Thursday, June 4.
Jeff Bezos took to social media and shared a post, writing, “All personnel are responsible and safe. It is too early to know the cause, but we are already working to find it.
“Very tough day, but we will rebuild everything that needs to be rebuilt and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
Blue Origin last week on May 22 received the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration to resume launches of its New Glenn rocket.
During the New Glenn 3 (NG-3) mission, the rocket encountered an in-flight malfunction with its upper stage.
It led to escape by placing AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird-7 satellite into the correct orbit.
The Amazon Leo satellites have not been moved to the launch site from their payload processing facility to be installed on the rocket.
This was expected to be the first of 24 launches that Amazon Leo planned on New Glenn rockets.
The incident is seen as a major setback for NASA’s plans to build a lunar base and return humans to the moon within the next two years.
For the uninitiated, Artemis III, targeted for 2027, is intended to test Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander and SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS).
The tests will determine which of the two will bring the Artemis IV crew from the Orion capsule to the lunar surface.
