Ahead of October Launch, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Rocket Explodes During Testing

The company is tripping over its own feet to meet a tight NASA deadline.

Mission Glennpossible

Jeff Bezos' rocket venture Blue Origin is tripping over its own feet as it races to meet an October deadline.

The company is still hoping to have its New Glenn orbital rocket ready for NASA's EscaPADE mission, which is scheduled to launch later this year, taking advantage of a rare alignment of the Earth and Mars to launch two spacecraft toward the Red Planet.

The next time the two planets will be this close won't occur for another two years.

But as Bloomberg reports, Blue Origin is facing major setbacks in the development of the 321-foot rocket. According to the report, an upper rocket portion failed during stress testing and exploded during testing, and a separate portion imploded like a soda can after engineers failed to install the necessary pressure-release valves before moving it from a humid exterior hangar into an air-conditioned space.

The launch platform, designed to compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9 and launch Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite constellation, is already a whopping four years behind schedule.

And given the latest news, it's starting to look increasingly unlikely that New Glenn will be ready to boost NASA's two Mars spacecraft into Earth's orbit in a matter of just two months.

Failure to Launch

That's despite all the flight hardware being complete, as a Blue Origin spokesperson told Bloomberg. The company is now working on assembling the various parts and engine integrations.

The company has already experienced other major setbacks, including an engine explosion of its much smaller New Shepard rocket in September 2022, which grounded the space tourist shuttle until December 2023.

Blue Origin has also reshuffled much of its upper management in the midst of the drama, including the appointment of a new CEO in December, Dave Limp, who has since installed several new executives in an apparent attempt to kick the company into high gear. The company is still hiring at a breakneck pace.

But even with a slate of new talent, it's still facing some major technical hurdles, including the much-plagued BE-4 rocket engines that will power its New Glenn rocket. The engines, which are also being used for the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket, have faced years of delays and were only recently delivered.

With easily avoidable user errors plaguing its rocket's development, Blue Origin is facing a major uphill battle to rise to the occasion — and a lucrative NASA contract hangs in the balance.

Rocket Lab, the maker of the two Mars spacecraft, recently revealed that it had entered "hero mode" to get the probes ready for an October launch. But whether those efforts will pay off remains to be seen.

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