(BBC News) The fireball that lit up the sky over Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre last night has put a big question mark over whether Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin can deliver on a string of commitments to NASA in its efforts to send astronauts to the lunar surface and build a Moon base.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded at about 21:00 local time during a routine test of its engines.
The 98-metre rocket had been due to launch 48 satellites for Amazon’s Leo broadband network, as early as June 4.
The explosion is obviously a big setback for the Leo network, which is struggling to be the main competitor for Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its Starlink service. But the ramifications will go much further.
The good news was that no one was injured, despite the spectacular explosion.
“All personnel are accounted for and safe,” Bezos wrote on X. “Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
But the blast which tore through Space Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) has caused extensive damage. Footage shows one of the pad’s lightning protection towers toppling in the aftermath.
LC-36 is the only facility in the world built to launch the New Glenn rocket. That means that until the launch pad is rebuilt and re-certified, Blue Origin has no way to fly its largest rocket – and analysts expect that to take months, not weeks.
The setback comes just days after NASA’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, announced the first three missions of the agency’s plans to build a lunar base – a project he billed as the start of a “permanent presence” at the Moon’s south pole.
The first, Moon Base 1, is due to be flown on Blue Origin’s robotic Blue Moon Mark 1 “Endurance” lander, and is targeted for launch no earlier than autumn 2026.
It is intended to carry two NASA science payloads to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge and demonstrate the precision-landing techniques needed to keep future crewed landings safe.
But the lander was to ride to the Moon on top of a New Glenn – the same type of rocket that is now scattered across LC-36 – raising immediate doubts as to whether that timetable is now possible.
Earlier this week, NASA handed Blue Origin a contract worth up to $468 million to deliver two commercial lunar terrain vehicles, built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, to the Moon’s south pole by 2028.
Those rovers are meant to be in place before astronauts arrive. NASA has set a target date of 2028 for a crewed landing, though that date had been questioned even before last night’s explosion.
