It’s been almost a month since the New Glenn rocket exploded on its launch pad in Florida, creating a huge fireball. It was probably the largest rocket explosion ever experienced at Florida’s historic spaceport, and we are still grappling with its implications today.
The rocket explosion destroyed its only launch pad, LC-36A. So even if Blue Origin can quickly diagnose the cause of the failure, it has nowhere to launch the New Glenn rocket from. Company officials, including founder Jeff Bezos, have said the vehicle will fly again on LC-36A before the end of this year, although there is widespread skepticism about that timeline.
Meanwhile, we have more questions than answers about a rocket that has become increasingly central to the needs of NASA and commercial customers. What does this failure mean for the Artemis Program to land humans on the Moon? What do we know about the timing of Artemis III and the moon landing mission, Artemis IV? What about the moon base?
