Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is doubling the use of its New Glenn mega-rocket again this year after last month’s blast. But the company still doesn’t know why this explosion happened in the first place.
In his most detailed public statement about the explosion, CEO Dave Limp he wrote on Blue Origin’s website on Tuesday that his company was still trying to “determine and correct the root cause” of the explosion. “Early analysis shows the rear section of the first stage” of the missile, Limp wrote, saying the company is pulling “extensive data from multiple camera angles and sensors.”
After spending more than a decade slowly and deliberately developing the New Glenn, Blue Origin was moving quickly with the new rocket. Its first launch was in January 2025, and New Glenn was preparing to fly for the fourth time when it exploded during testing on May 28 this year. (No one was injured in the explosion.)
Blue Origin wants to get the rocket back into flight as quickly as possible because the company has become one of the central players in NASA’s effort to return humans to the moon before President Trump leaves office.
To do that, Blue Origin will not only have to determine and fix what caused the explosion last month, but it will also have to rebuild the company’s launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, which is currently the company’s only launch pad that can support the massive rocket.
In his post, Limp praised Blue Origin employees for making quick progress on that front.
The company lost a lightning tower in the explosion, as well as the large piece of equipment that moves New Glenn to the launch site and lifts it (known as the carrier-installer). The nearby buildings at the site were also damaged by the explosion. However, Limp wrote that “we’ve caught a lot of breaks, too, and we plan to make the most of them.”
Some of those breaks include the fact that the on-site water tower, gas tanks and missile integration facility are “in good shape.”
Limp shared more details about how Blue Origin will change the current launch complex at Cape Canaveral. The company is scrapping the carrier-installer concept and will instead use a giant crane to lift New Glenn to the launch site before flights.
In addition to allowing Blue Origin to return to flight earlier than expected, this approach would increase New Glenn’s flight rate, according to Limp. Blue Origin was planning up to 12 launches this year before the May explosion.
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