A New Glenn rocket, the most ambitious project of the aerospace company Blue Origin – owned by tycoon Jeff Bezos – has suffered an explosion that has unleashed a colossal fireball during a test on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA). With this model of space shuttle, Bezos intends to beat Elon Musk in his particular space race to take the first astronauts to the surface of the Moon since 1972.
This same Tuesday, NASA had commissioned Blue Origin with the first mission to begin building its lunar base, which was to be launched this fall. The US space agency has not yet clarified how this setback – the biggest accident in Bezos’ space company – will affect those plans to establish a permanent human colony on the Moon and, more generally, the Artemis program with which the US wants to set foot on the Moon again in 2028, before China achieves it.
“An anomaly has occurred during today’s static ignition test,” the company explained in a message published on networks in which it added that “it has been verified that all personnel are safe.”
For his part, Bezos has indicated that, despite the fact that work is already being done to find out. “It has been a very hard day, but we will rebuild what is necessary and we will fly again. It is worth it,” Bezos concluded in relation to this event that occurred at Cape Canaveral, an area considered one of the main centers for North American space activities.
Specifically, it is the New Glenn, a “giant and reusable” rocket designed by the company Blue Origin, which recently announced its plans to resume flights, after a failure recorded during the third flight of the rocket led to the opening of an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. Knowing the facts, the director of NASA, Jared Isaacman, has pointed out in a message on networks that “space flights are not forgiving” and that “developing a new large-tonnage launch capacity is extraordinarily difficult.” Therefore, it has committed to collaborating with its “partners” to “support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, evaluate the short-term repercussions on missions and relaunch rockets.”
