Here’s why the failure of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is so catastrophic | “I hope that it makes it far enough away from the pad that it does not cause pad damage.”
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/heres-why-the-failure-of-blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-is-so-catastrophic/
21 Comments
I don’t think I have to read that to know that explosion probably wasn’t intended
>Rebuilding the company’s pad, or finishing a new one, is likely to take at least a year, even with a major effort by Blue Origin, and drawing upon Jeff Bezos’ nearly infinite resources. One source familiar with pad rebuilds estimated that 15 months was a “best case” scenario.
Well, fuck. This very likely puts Blue out of the picture regarding Artemis III.
>Thursday night’s detonation of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket during a static-fire test produced a spectacular fireball over Florida, sending shards of the rocket flying far and wide, into the sea and across the coastal scrubland nearby.
>With sunrise on Friday teams from Blue Origin, the US Space Force, and NASA will be able to begin more thoroughly assessing the damage to Blue Origin’s facilities, and begin picking up pieces of the rocket.
>Metaphorically, the effort to pick up pieces will extend far beyond Blue Origin. This launch failure is going to be devastating for not just Blue Origin, but NASA and broad segments of the US space industry. Here’s a look at some of the major issues that will stem from the explosion.
coolest looking billions of dollar being blown away tho
In a way, it was fortunate for SpaceX for AMOS-6 to happen when it did, because they had other launch pads to fall back on during the time they had to repair SLC-40. This is a really bad event to happen to Blue Origin right now, not just because New Glenn is still a new vehicle and is needed for Artemis, but because SLC-36 is their only pad.
They just got over the mishap investigation from the last flight too. I’m convinced once the engine really gets running blue origins gonna be a major player though. I’m all for the goal of taking heavy industry into space where possible
I gotta rewatch Contact now.
It was on the pad was it not? The water deluge system was active so I am assuming it as and everything was damaged in the explosion.
someone f’ed up big time to have this type of worse case scenerio happening.
If pad destruction was a big risk to the timeline, then why wasn’t a second pad built for contingency? Sure it’s expensive, but time is usually more expensive.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[BE-4](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oosfchp “Last usage”)|Blue Engine 4 methalox rocket engine, developed by Blue Origin (2018), 2400kN|
|[BO](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooq7yb1 “Last usage”)|Blue Origin (*Bezos Rocketry*)|
|[COPV](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oom4muj “Last usage”)|[Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_overwrapped_pressure_vessel)|
|[CRS](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooo0ayv “Last usage”)|[Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/)|
|CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules|
| |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)|
|[FAA](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ookt0mc “Last usage”)|Federal Aviation Administration|
|[GSE](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oosfchp “Last usage”)|Ground Support Equipment|
|[GTO](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooor5td “Last usage”)|[Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit](http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/20140116-how-to-get-a-satellite-to-gto.html)|
|[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oou2m0f “Last usage”)|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
|[KSC](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oorsa1b “Last usage”)|Kennedy Space Center, Florida|
|[LC-39A](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooogwm2 “Last usage”)|Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy (SpaceX F9/Heavy)|
|[LEM](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oonrfel “Last usage”)|(Apollo) [Lunar Excursion Module](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module) (also Lunar Module)|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oow1mte “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[LH2](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oopz6ei “Last usage”)|Liquid Hydrogen|
|[LLO](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooogd8l “Last usage”)|Low Lunar Orbit (below 100km)|
|[LOM](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oomk8xo “Last usage”)|Loss of Mission|
|[LOX](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooqg9yn “Last usage”)|Liquid Oxygen|
|[MECO](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ookcpsn “Last usage”)|Main Engine Cut-Off|
| |[MainEngineCutOff](https://mainenginecutoff.com/) podcast|
|[N1](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooo34jc “Last usage”)|Raketa Nositel-1, Soviet super-heavy-lift (“Russian Saturn V”)|
|[NG](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oolo6z6 “Last usage”)|New Glenn, two/three-stage orbital vehicle by Blue Origin|
| |Natural Gas (as opposed to pure methane)|
| |Northrop Grumman, aerospace manufacturer|
|[NRHO](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooogd8l “Last usage”)|Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit|
|[RTLS](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oow1mte “Last usage”)|Return to Launch Site|
|[RUD](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ool1ese “Last usage”)|Rapid Unplanned Disassembly|
| |Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly|
| |Rapid Unintended Disassembly|
|[SLC-40](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooogwm2 “Last usage”)|Space Launch Complex 40, Canaveral (SpaceX F9)|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oov3dqx “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[SRB](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oosfchp “Last usage”)|Solid Rocket Booster|
|[TLI](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooor5td “Last usage”)|Trans-Lunar Injection maneuver|
|[ULA](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oom6bpj “Last usage”)|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Raptor](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oosfchp “Last usage”)|[Methane-fueled rocket engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_(rocket_engine_family)) under development by SpaceX|
|[Starliner](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oorede5 “Last usage”)|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)|
|[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oorede5 “Last usage”)|SpaceX’s world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
|[cislunar](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oomqdc7 “Last usage”)|Between the Earth and Moon; within the Moon’s orbit|
|[cryogenic](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oopz6ei “Last usage”)|Very low temperature fluid; materials that would be gaseous at room temperature/pressure|
| |(In re: rocket fuel) Often synonymous with hydrolox|
|[deep throttling](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oolk44r “Last usage”)|Operating an engine at much lower thrust than normal|
|[hydrolox](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oopy6uj “Last usage”)|Portmanteau: liquid hydrogen fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer|
|[hypergolic](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooninm6 “Last usage”)|A set of two substances that ignite when in contact|
|[kerolox](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/ooo34jc “Last usage”)|Portmanteau: kerosene fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer|
|[methalox](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oorzyw7 “Last usage”)|Portmanteau: methane fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer|
|[turbopump](/r/Space/comments/1tr14yu/stub/oopbg3y “Last usage”)|High-pressure turbine-driven propellant pump connected to a rocket combustion chamber; raises chamber pressure, and thrust|
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Here’s some new aerial photos:
https://x.com/tweetsiphotos/status/2060361859509653580
https://x.com/interstellargw/status/2060373090295493101
https://x.com/nasaspaceflight/status/2060382948398862529
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfYREyswsyw
Maybe a dumb question, but does an explosion like that rain [for lack of a better description] fuel *residue* down from the air? Is the site toxic because of it or is it presumed to entirely go up in flames? What does exploding rocket fuel aftermath look like on the ground below it?
Wasn’t it a static fire test? Kinda makes it hard to get away from the pad then, no?
What’s going on that causes so many rockets to explode?
Genuinely asking, I’ve never even played Kerbal.
This is so depressing. I was so looking forward to seeing the Artemis landing and the next phase construction take off. This seems like it will be a huge delay. I hope they figure out some actions to mitigate the consequences.
Does this mean my Prime membership subscription cost is going to increase?
what makes New Glenn’s situation particularly brutal is that Blue Origin spent years in development with essentially unlimited Bezos funding, and still couldn’t nail the reliability that SpaceX built through rapid iteration and accepting public failures. the irony is that SpaceX’s willingness to blow things up on camera is exactly what made them reliable. Blue Origin’s secretive ‘be careful’ culture may have been their biggest technical liability.
They went from New Glenn to [Old Gregg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EVeVNtkLGs) in an instant.
Maybe if Jeff was making sure of shit instead of going to Galas, ,,, IDK 🤷🏼♀️
What’s the environmental fine if someone gets caught dumping a quart of motor oil into a municipal sewer drain? What one person pays that fine? Compare an contrast.