A New Glenn heavy-lift rocket from Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin exploded during a ground test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the US state of Florida.
A blast and a massive fireball were shown in a livestream during the so-called "hotfire," a test in which the rocket engine is fired up while it remains anchored to the ground.
"We experienced an anomaly during today's hotfire test," Blue Origin said in a post on social media platform X. "All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more."
Billionaire founder Bezos wrote on X that "it's too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it."
"Very rough day," Bezos added, "but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it."
Blue Origin is making preparations for New Glenn's fourth launch. The explosion is a major setback.
The space company aims to use the New Glenn system to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX, which currently dominates the commercial launch market.
Musk responded to a video on X showing the failed test with the words: "Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard."
New Glenn reached space on its maiden flight in January 2025. On its second mission about 10 months later, it carried two NASA Mars orbiters into space.
In the third launch in April, the rocket lifted off as planned but later deployed a satellite into the wrong orbit, triggering a Federal Aviation Administration investigation.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the US space agency was "aware of the anomaly," in a post on X.
"Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult. We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets."
"We will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available," Isaacman added.
