Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket just exploded during a static fire test

New Glenn was due to play a starring role in NASA's Artemis Program.

See full article...

 

[Resistance]

Blew Origin

 

[DrewW]

I’ll take non-nuclear mushroom clouds for $1,000 please Alex.

I hope they got good data from one hell of a boom.

 

[Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer]

Oof, that's painful to watch. I have the urge to make a snarky comment like "I guess it wasn't necessary after all" but my heart's not really in it.

 

[diabol1k]

Whoa, that was a big boom. Eric wasn’t exaggerating.

(/mutters in continued reliance on SpaceX)

 

[TacoBuster]

Better look to see if there were any good sniper perches near by.

 

[SportivoA]

Went and caught the NSF clip (ed: link shoot for 9 pm on the clock) on this from Youtube along with their post-RUD commentary and watching the emergency response around the pad. Someone page the NASA methalox mixing scientists?

 

[YetAnotherBoris]

No, this wasn't necessary...

 

[DanNeely]

Anyone have a longer clip that continues past the fireball? I know we'll need to wait till morning for enough light to see clearly but I'd like to know if both lightning arrestor towers are still standing. I think I saw the left one briefly as the fireball started to dissipate at the end.

 

[mirandahw]

Today's a dark day

 

[DanNeely]

Anyone have a longer clip that continues past the fireball? I know we'll need to wait till morning for enough light to see clearly but I'd like to know if both lightning arrestor towers are still standing. I think I saw the left one briefly as the fireball started to dissipate at the end.

Answering my own question, the NSF streams higher quality video shows the right tower swaying badly as its engulfed in the fireball and gone when it's dissipated.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm8wRjD3xVA
@ 9PM

 

[EricBerger]

I’ll take non-nuclear mushroom clouds for $1,000 please Alex.

I hope they got good data from one hell of a boom.

One silver lining is that the Space Force has very little data about methane-fueled rocket exclusion zones. It's a serious problem (i.e. how much of the Cape do you shutdown during Blue Origin or ULA or SpaceX launches with their heavy lift rockets. Now ... they have data.

 

[Doug DigDag]

Reached for comment, NASA employees shouted "WHAT!?"

 

[LordEOD]

Trying to calculate the blast yield, but way out of my league; not a rocket scientist..
Still, it must be among some of the largest (non-nuclear) explosions to take place - it's no wonder the site is rekt.

Sad - but I hope they got some useful telemetry and can build off of it.
It's still an experimental craft and so mishaps are to be expected, but it's extra painful when said mishaps also takes a bite out of infrastructure.

 

[Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer]

One silver lining is that the Space Force has very little data about methane-fueled rocket exclusion zones. It's a serious problem (i.e. how much of the Cape do you shutdown during Blue Origin or ULA or SpaceX launches with their heavy lift rockets. Now ... they have data.

I know you're not trying to be funny, but that's some proper gallows humor right there.

Today's a dark day

IDK, it was quite bright for a few brief seconds.

 

[YetAnotherBoris]

If there’s a small silver lining its that the rocket that exploded Thursday night did not carry its payload of Amazon Leo internet satellites. They were safe, in a nearby integration facility, awaiting launch.

NSF's commentators have spotted damage to the HIF building: there is light coming through wall junctions that used to be seamless. Given the massive shockwave that made even the heavily reinforced tower next to the pad sway, it's possible just about everything within less than a mile's radius is damaged to some extent.

 

[Mandella]

One silver lining is that the Space Force has very little data about methane-fueled rocket exclusion zones. It's a serious problem (i.e. how much of the Cape do you shutdown during Blue Origin or ULA or SpaceX launches with their heavy lift rockets. Now ... they have data.

Bigger rockets are going to have bigger booms. It is going to be a fact of operations going forward, so very important data indeed.

 

[Doctacosa]

Well, crap. I was wondering if the payload was already on board, good to know it wasn't.

Thanks for the quick report Eric, much appreciated.

 

[mdrejhon]

One silver lining is that the Space Force has very little data about methane-fueled rocket exclusion zones. It's a serious problem (i.e. how much of the Cape do you shutdown during Blue Origin or ULA or SpaceX launches with their heavy lift rockets. Now ... they have data.

Pardon my pun, but also an explosion of data.

 

[Mandella]

Answering my own question, the NSF streams higher quality video shows the right tower swaying badly as its engulfed in the fireball and gone when it's dissipated.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm8wRjD3xVA

The commentators are saying the feed will continue indefinitely, for those who wish to check back on the burning rubble over time.

 

[Wickwick]

Local news reports the blast was heard as far as 45 miles away.

My son just came in from being at the beach and reports that the glow of the explosion was visible here (100+ miles). That's not surprising as we can see launches quite clearly.

 

[Wickwick]

One silver lining is that the Space Force has very little data about methane-fueled rocket exclusion zones. It's a serious problem (i.e. how much of the Cape do you shutdown during Blue Origin or ULA or SpaceX launches with their heavy lift rockets. Now ... they have data.

For those wondering, yes this was a detonation, not just a deflagration.

In the source video just after the sensor is oversaturated there is an obviously, spherical condensation cloud which is a clear sign of a shock wave.

 

[r0twhylr]

One silver lining is that the Space Force has very little data about methane-fueled rocket exclusion zones. It's a serious problem (i.e. how much of the Cape do you shutdown during Blue Origin or ULA or SpaceX launches with their heavy lift rockets. Now ... they have data.

Judging by the trajectory of some of the ejecta, they are going to be picking up pieces of data for quite some time.

 

[InvariantCapitalist]

I hate living in a world where the first explanation my mind leaps to is a conspiracy theory. Obviously there’s no need to look beyond the fact that it was a test of a massive rocket to explain the explosion. However, since it seems like every powerful person around these days will eventually be revealed to have done terrible immoral and corrupt things for no good reason, the (completely unsupported) idea that spacex would sabotage a rival to maximize the upcoming ipo feels at a gut level almost inevitable.

Humans prefer to find agency in unexplained events, it’s a product of evolution. Assuming the rustle in the bushes is a tiger instead of the wind may save a life.

But in this case it’s not warranted. BO having a successful launch or not will have no effect on the IPO. Did you also think that BO sabotaged the starship booster in last weeks test for same reason? If not your bias isn’t finding agency, it’s attributing it to individuals you already want to believe would do it.

 

[philringsmuth]

Blew Origin

Angry upvote.

 

[Mandella]

For those wondering, yes this was a detonation, not just a deflagration.

In the source video just after the sensor is oversaturated there is an obviously, spherical condensation cloud which is a clear sign of a shock wave.

NSF just showed a snippet from another source much further away, and you can really see the spherical condensation cloud from the wider view.

 

[Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer]

For those wondering, yes this was a detonation, not just a deflagration.

In the source video just after the sensor is oversaturated there is an obviously, spherical condensation cloud which is a clear sign of a shock wave.

Oh yeah, there was another (blurry cellphone) video from out on the water and the spherical shockwave was pretty obvious in that one.

Is it a WWE if it's not Artemis?

 

[InvariantCapitalist]

Today's a dark day

This really sucks, New Glenn is already coming off a failed launch and now has maybe a years delay till next one.

Losing the best non-SpaceX heavy launcher and setting it back before it can achieve higher cadence loses a very attractive option for deep space missions, and not just Artemis.

 

[natelson]

Using the Sedov-Taylor-Rayleigh blast equation, and estimating from the video footage (towers 180 m tall, shockwave takes about 0.2 s to get there), it seems that the Blue Origin New Glenn explosion had a yield of a bit over 1 kT. The pad should be a mess - the energy release is roughly equivalent to detonating a low-yield tactical nuclear warhead.

 

[InvariantCapitalist]

I get that this is all basically a dick measuring contest between Bezos and Musk, but he really didn't need to go the extra mile to outdo SpaceX.

If you think building the future of space launch and deep space exploration is a dick measuring contest, I don’t know what to tell you.

 

[YetAnotherBoris]

Oh yeah, there was another (blurry cellphone) video from out on the water and the spherical shockwave was pretty obvious in that one.

Is it a WWE if it's not Artemis?

It's not a WWE, as unlike the case with the SLS, nobody was hoping that New Glenn would die in the crib before it could go fully operational.

 

[SportivoA]

NSF also points out that ULA and SpaceX both have launch complex fully stacked pads planning for launch in the next 24 hours. That's a lot of stuff to potentially need to inspect depending on proximity. Plus potential impacts to shared utilities across the Space Coast.

 

[Wickwick]

Using the Sedov-Taylor-Rayleigh blast equation, and estimating from the video footage (towers 180 m tall, shockwave takes about 0.2 s to get there), it seems that the Blue Origin New Glenn explosion had a yield of a bit over 1 kT. The pad should be a mess - the energy release is roughly equivalent to detonating a low-yield tactical nuclear warhead.

And yet, a tiny fraction of the 1:1 TNT equivalent the Space Force uses as its design point for standoff distance. SpaceX has been arguing that should be 1:4 which would still be much higher than we're seeing here - but this isn't the worst case explosion by far.

Edit: No, my numbers were off - that's about 1/2 of the propellant equivalent. That seems excessively high given that we saw quite a bit of deflagration at the start.

 

[pkirvan]

BO is older than SpaceX and has done 2 successful launches. They claimed, wrongly, that their methodical approach would somehow be safer in the end. Its not. They are 2 for four and a hell of a long way from being safe and reliable. Meanwhile Vulcan isn't doing so well either. Only SLS has managed any success with that approach, and that's only because it has more money than God.

Rapid iteration is clearly the correct approach.

 

[Perrin42]

Big bada boom.

 

[bthylafh]

On the bright side, at least this isn't using hypergolic propellants.