India, May 29 -- A New Glenn rocket from Blue Origin exploded during a ground test at Kennedy Space Center, raising concerns about the timeline for NASA's Artemis moon program and planned lunar base construction.
The explosion occurred during a scheduled "hotfire" static test at Launch Complex 36 near Cape Canaveral late Thursday evening, engulfing the launchpad in a massive fireball visible more than 100 miles away. No injuries were reported, and founder Jeff Bezos said all personnel were safe.
NASA recently selected Blue Origin to launch missions supporting construction of a proposed $20 billion moon base, while the company is also competing with SpaceX to provide lunar landers for future Artemis missions. The destroyed rocket was expec...