Blue Origin pad destroyed in explosion
Blue Origin's only New Glenn launch complex was destroyed during a hot fire test, setting back NASA's lunar program by at least a year.
Snapshot · This Week in Tech (Audio)
TWiT 1086: The Great Beagle Migration - Pope Leo XIV's 1st Encyclical & Ferrari's 1st EV
Explore episode
May 31, 2026
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Blue Origin's Catastrophic New Glenn Explosion
At 7:45 · chapter starts 7:35
The most spectacular rocket explosion since the Soviet N1 in 1969 has just occurred in Florida, and Sam Abuelsamid walks the panel through exactly what happened: Blue Origin's New Glenn was undergoing a hot fire test — engines ignited while the vehicle remains clamped to the pad — when it exploded, destroying the facility that is the company's only New Glenn launch site. [1] — Sam Abuelsamid "Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded during a hot fire test, destroying the company's only launchpad and setting back NASA's lunar progr…" 07:33 That means at least a year of rebuild time, directly threatening NASA's timeline for launching lunar rovers. Abuelsamid widens the lens to critique the environmental cost of the methane rocket era: liquid methane boils off continuously from cryogenic tanks even sitting on the pad, venting a greenhouse gas far more potent than CO2. Molly White sharpens the cultural critique, noting that Silicon Valley's 'move fast and break things' philosophy is now being applied to industries — space, government, critical infrastructure — where that ethos has genuinely catastrophic consequences.
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