SpaceX rival rocket explodes during NASA mission test

The top of Blue Origin's New Glenn orbital rocket exploded during endurance testing, according to BloombergIt's another setback for Amazon owner Jeff Bezos' space project. The rocket should be ready for NASA's planned October mission.

While one part of the New Glenn rocket exploded, another part did. It crumpled like a soda can as it was moved from a damp hangar to an air-conditioned space. The accident happened because pressure relief valves were not installed.

Blue Origin Races (and Stumbles) to Get Rocket Ready for NASA Mission

The solid portion of the rocket is ready, a Blue Origin spokesperson told Bloomberg. The company is now assembling the rocket’s engine parts and integrations to make it ready for launch. NASA's Escape Mission.

This mission will take advantage of a rare alignment between Earth and Mars to launch two spacecraft toward the Red Planet. This alignment will not be repeated for another two years.

But the rocket’s path to this mission has been fraught with setbacks. The recent explosion and collapse of parts of New Glenn wasn’t the company’s first stumble on the spacecraft front.

In September 2022, for example, an explosion on the New Shepard engine — which is much smaller than New Glenn — kept the space tourism rocket grounded until December 2023.

As for New Glenn, the project is four years behind schedule. Blue Origin plans to use the rocket (which is about 100 meters tall) to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and launch a constellation of satellites for Amazon’s project. Seeing how much of that will get off the ground in due course remains to be seen.

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Another rocket engine exploded during testing just before its first flight.

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket wasn't the only one to have parts explode this week. On Monday (19), the first stage of Rocket Factory Augsburg's (RFA) inaugural rocket was destroyed during a static fire test.

The accident occurred in the Shetland Islands, an archipelago in Scotland. It was a major setback for the German company, which was about to launch its first flight.