Jeff Bezos’ house firm Blue Origin is doubling down on utilizing its New Glenn mega-rocket once more this yr after final month’s explosion. However the firm nonetheless doesn’t know why that explosion occurred within the first place.
In his most detailed public assertion in regards to the explosion but, CEO Dave Limp wrote on Blue Origin’s web site on Tuesday that his firm remains to be making an attempt to “establish and proper the foundation trigger” of the explosion. “Early evaluation factors to the aft part of the primary stage” of the rocket, Limp wrote, saying the corporate is pulling on “in depth information from a number of digicam angles and sensors.”
After spending greater than a decade to slowly and intentionally develop New Glenn, Blue Origin had been transferring rapidly with the brand new rocket. Its first launch was in January 2025, and New Glenn was making ready to fly for the fourth time when it exploded throughout testing on Might 28 this yr. (No person was harm within the explosion.)
Blue Origin desires to return the rocket to flight as rapidly as it could actually as a result of the corporate has turn out to be one of many central gamers in NASA’s push to return people to the moon earlier than President Trump leaves workplace.
To take action, Blue Origin is not going to solely want to find out and repair what brought on the explosion final month, however it can additionally must rebuild the corporate’s launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as it’s at the moment the corporate’s solely launchpad that may help the huge rocket.
In his put up, Limp praised Blue Origin’s workers for making fast progress on this entrance.
The corporate misplaced a lightning tower within the explosion, in addition to the massive piece of apparatus that strikes New Glenn to the launchpad and stands it up (often known as the transporter-erector). Close by buildings on the positioning had been broken within the blast, too. Nonetheless, Limp wrote that “we caught plenty of breaks, too, and intend to take advantage of them.”
A few of these breaks embrace the truth that the on-site water tower, gasoline tanks, and rocket integration facility are “in fine condition.”
Limp shared extra particulars about how Blue Origin will change its present launch advanced in Cape Canaveral. The corporate is eliminating the transporter-erector thought and can as a substitute use a large crane to face New Glenn up on the launchpad earlier than flights.
Apart from permitting Blue Origin to return to flight earlier than anticipated, this strategy would enhance New Glenn’s flight cadence, in line with Limp. Blue Origin was planning as many as 12 launches this yr earlier than the Might explosion.
Whenever you buy by way of hyperlinks in our articles, we might earn a small fee. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.