Blue Origin's New Glenn heavy-lift rocket exploded around 9 p.m. Eastern Time on May 28 during a static fire engine ignition test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. The test aimed to validate the first stage engines and system performance ahead of a planned launch.

The explosion created a large fireball and thick smoke visible from the site. Authorities confirmed all personnel at the test area were safe and no injuries were reported [1, 9, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 6]. Florida Congressman Harry Demopoulos said he was relieved no casualties occurred and praised the speedy response of emergency crews and engineers [8].

Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos stated the root cause of the explosion is still unknown and the company is investigating the incident. He said, "现在判断根本原因还为时过早，但我们已经在努力寻找原因。今天真是艰难的一天，但我们会重建一切需要重建的东西，然后重新开始飞行。这一切都是值得的." [8]. Bezos added the team plans to rebuild damaged hardware and resume flights as soon as possible [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].

The New Glenn rocket stands 98 meters tall [7, 8]. It was not carrying any payload during the test. The next scheduled launch was set for June 4, intending to deploy 48 Amazon low Earth orbit satellites [1, 7, 8].

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson remarked that spaceflight allows no errors and developing heavy-lift rockets is extremely difficult. He said NASA will collaborate with Blue Origin to thoroughly investigate the anomaly, assess impacts on upcoming missions, and restore launch readiness quickly [1, 10, 7, 8].

The Federal Aviation Administration clarified that the static fire test was outside FAA jurisdiction and had no impact on air traffic. Yet, the FAA has requested Blue Origin to conduct an investigation into the earlier April New Glenn launch failure, when the second stage failed to insert the AST SpaceMobile satellite into orbit, a case still being studied [2, 3, 4, 7, 8].

On social media, Elon Musk expressed sympathy for Blue Origin, stating: "很遗憾看到这个情况，祝你早日恢复；太不幸了，火箭发射就是很艰难." This was noted as an unusually supportive comment compared with prior exchanges between the companies [6, 7, 8].