New Glenn rocket lost in explosion

A Blue Origin rocket, named New Glenn #4, was lost during a static test firing of its engines while standing at Launch Complex 36 at the Kennedy Space Center. Billionaire Jeff Bezos backs the Blue Origin projects. The explosion happened at about 9pm Florida time (01.00 UTC) on May 28th. The loss of the NG-4 rocket is a significant set-back for the launch company. It will also mean a major reconstruction of the launch pad and associated ground support equipment which might take as long as 12 or more months to repair/rebuild. LC-36 appears to have suffered significant damage, with several towers and other structures entirely missing, It is also a set-back for AST SpaceMobile (AST) which had expected the rocket to launch a batch of its satellites next week. AST’s share price tumbled 7 percent ($9.37) in after-market trading on Thursday evening. A message from Bezos said: “All personnel are accounted for and safe. It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it”. Also likely to suffer significant consequences will be the Amazon-backed Leo satellite constellation which was depending on New Glenn to launch its fleet. Blue Origin, in its message after the explosion, said: “We experienced an anomaly during today’s hot-fire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.” Elon Musk, despite being a fierce competitor and allegedly no friend of Bezos, in a tweet on ‘X’ said: “Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly.” The consequences for AST are significant. There are suggestions that AST’s commercial launch will now slip into very late 2027 or 2028. Professor Tim Farrar (of TMF Associates) stated: “If you are super optimistic and give [the company] credit for two more NGs (9-10) and a total of four SpaceX Falcon-9’s (12 inc BB8-10) then absolute best case is 28 launched by the end of the year (and no commercial service until 2027H2).”