Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded during 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 9 p.m. EDT (0100 UTC) as the engines 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 message in which he wrote: “All staff are identified and safe. It is too early to know the root cause, but we are already working to find it.
“Very difficult day, but we will rebuild everything that needs to be rebuilt and get back flying. It will be 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 experienced an in-flight malfunction in its upper stage.
This enabled an escape by placing AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird-7 satellite into the correct orbit.
The Amazon Leo satellites were not moved to the launch site from their payload processing facility for installation on the rocket.
This was the first of 24 planned Amazon Leo launches on New Glenn rockets.
The incident is seen as a major setback to NASA’s plans to build a lunar base and return humans to the Moon within the next two years.
For the uninitiated, Artemis III, scheduled for 2027, is expected to test Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander and SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS).
The tests will decide which of the two will bring the Artemis IV crew of the Orion capsule to the surface of the Moon.
