Blue Origin explosion could be setback to NASA's Artemis moon missions
NASA and Blue Origin had high hopes that the spaceflight company's towering New Glenn rocket would be able to jumpstart the agency's plans for a moon base later in 2026.
Then it exploded.
In what could end up being the most disastrous setback in the history of Blue Origin, its massive launch vehicle blew up May 28 in a fiery blast that briefly colored the Florida sky orange and sent blazing fireballs cascading into the night. The explosion came on the eve of New Glenn's fourth launch from Cape Canaveral following a mission in April that ended with mixed results.
The consequences of what Blue Origin referred to as an "anomaly" are likely to be far-reaching.
Because the explosion appeared to destroy both the rocket's first-stage booster and upper stage that flies in orbit while dealing untold damage to Blue Origin's launch pad, it will likely put New Glenn out of service for the foreseeable future. If that's the case, that sobering development would be a critical blow to NASA and its ambitions of establishing a foothold on the moon.
Just two days prior to the explosion, leaders of the U.S. space agency hosted a high-profile press conference in which they detailed how Blue Origin and its New Glenn rocket were a vital part of its plans to return humans to the lunar surface and build a moon base.
Here's what to know about how Blue Origin's New Glenn explosion could hinder NASA's Artemis moon program.
Why did Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket explode?
The fully stacked New Glenn rocket exploded in a massive fireball after 9 p.m. ET Thursday, May 28, above the launch site along the Florida coast.
Blue Origin said in a post on social media it occurred during a hot fire test as the company was preparing the rocket for an upcoming launch. The prelaunch test involved firing up the rocket while it was securely held in place on the ground to verify hardware was working as intended at Launch Complex 36, which Blue Origin leases at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The New Glenn rocket was due to launch in the days ahead on its fourth flight since January 2025, this time delivering a batch of Bezos' Amazon Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit. While the second stage of the rocket that flies in orbit after separation was stacked atop the booster, Blue Origin had not integrated the payload of satellites prior to the explosion.
No injuries were reported and the company is investigating both the cause and extent of the damage, Bezos said in a post on X.
What is the New Glenn rocket?
Named in honor of NASA astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, New Glenn is a powerful two-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle manufactured by Blue Origin.
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket stands at 322 feet tall, making it comparable in size to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) developed for the Artemis moon campaign. SpaceX's Starship, though, which is approximately 400 feet tall, is still regarded as the largest rocket in the world.
Blue Origin competes with SpaceX to develop lunar lander
The setback comes as Blue Origin has been hard at work on both the crewed and uncrewed variants of its Blue Moon lunar lander for NASA's Artemis moon program.
SpaceX, the spaceflight company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has also been developing a lunar lander – a configuration of its Starship vehicle, known as the Human Landing System.
Despite rising concerns that both landers were behind schedule, NASA had hoped that at least one, if not both, of them would be ready in time for a mission known as Artemis III targeted for 2027. That mission, added to the Artemis program in March, aims to send a crew of astronaut to dock with the landers in Earth orbit in a test flight preceding a moon landing as early as 2028.
For Blue Origin, New Glenn is critical to those plans, as it would be the launch vehicle that would deliver its Blue Moon lander to orbit.
Both Blue Origin's and SpaceX's landers would rendezvous with astronauts aboard NASA's Orion crew capsule in lunar orbit and transport them to and from the surface.
Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, sympathized with Blue Origin's setback, calling it in a post on X "most unfortunate."
Could Blue Origin explosion hinder NASA's Artemis moon missions?
NASA also had pinned its hopes on New Glenn launching Blue Origin's uncrewed Blue Moon lander, known as the Mark 1, by fall 2026 for the moon.
The Mark 1 variant of the lander, which differs from the Mark 2 variant in that it's not designed for humans, was due to become the first of potentially three commercial lunar landers to travel without a crew to the moon in 2026. For the mission, Blue origin's lander would carry NASA equipment while targeting a landing on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge – a region in the lunar south pole that can receive solar power from the sunlight and have uninterrupted communications with Earth, according to NASA.
The mission would have been a crucial part of NASA's plan to set the stage for humans to return to the moon for the first time since 1972, where they would live and work longterm at a lunar outpost the agency projects will cost $20 billion to build.
But the explosion throws the feasibility of that mission into doubt – a possibility NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman acknowledged in a post on X.
"We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets," Isaacman said in the post. "We will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available."
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blue Origin explosion could be setback to NASA's Artemis moon missions
Reporting by Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 11:17 AM.