Blue Origin says it expects to fly its New Glenn rocket by the end of this year despite an explosion last week that destroyed the rocket and damaged the company's launch facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The explosion Thursday night could be seen and heard across Central Florida. Blue Origin's more than 300-foot-tall New Glenn rocket burst into flames during a hot fire test, where engineers fire the rocket's engines briefly while it's strapped down to the pad.
Initial images of the launch pad showed significant damage to the infrastructure, including the collapse of a launch tower. Aerospace experts anticipated at least a year before the pad could come back – Blue Origin only has one active facility to launch the New Glenn rocket.
But after visiting the pad, Blue Origin's CEO Dave Limp is optimistic the rocket can roar to life once again.
"We will fly again before the end of this year," he said in an update posted late Monday on X.
Limp said major pieces of the pad's infrastructure like its propellant tanks are all in good shape. "The big support tower is damaged," he wrote, "but it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced."
Parts for future New Glenn launches that were stored at the pad appeared to have survived the explosion, too.
"It sure does sound like good news for Blue Origin." said Don Platt, director of the Spaceport Education Center at Florida Tech. "Lots of the complex infrastructure sounds like it can be restored and not have to be rebuilt from scratch. I do believe they can fix the rocket issues by [the] end of year so if the pad damage is not as extensive as feared they do have a shot to be ready in about six months."
The company will also need to figure out what went wrong in the first place. So far, Blue Origin hasn't released details on any preliminary findings.
Moon plans
Blue Origin and its New Glenn rocket are critical to NASA's plans to return humans to the moon and create a permanent base on the lunar surface. Last month, the agency unveiled new plans to do just that – and awarded Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander contracts to deliver payloads to the lunar surface as early as this year. That lander utilized New Glenn to get it there.
It's unclear just how much of a setback this could be to NASA's plan, but administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency is committed to helping Blue Origin get back to flying.
"We are going to take an active role alongside our partners, just as we did in the [Apollo program in the] 1960s, to overcome setbacks, remove obstacles, and deliver the intended outcomes," said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman after surveying the damage and visiting the Blue Origin workforce Friday.
Along with delivering supplies, the Blue Moon lander was one of two commercial designs selected by NASA to bring astronauts to the lunar surface for future Artemis missions. Artemis III was set to launch late next year, using NASA's Orion spacecraft to demonstrate rendezvousing and docking with one or both of those landers in Earth orbit – a key test flight ahead of the Artemis IV mission to bring astronauts to the surface slated for 2028.
"NASA is committed to helping the Blue team recover, continue to advance their lunar lander and get New Glenn back to launching as soon as safely possible," said Isaacman.
That support will be critical to Blue Origin's path back to flight, according to Greg Autry, Associate Provost for Space Commercialization and Strategy.
"When you have a skilled and motivated workforce of sufficient size, significant physical and financial resources, and top level cover from the NASA Administrator on down, just about anything is possible," he said. "They can do this."
NASA plans to announce the crew of Artemis III next week, a sign the agency continues to move forward with its ambitious lunar plan despite the setback.
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