On May 29, 2026, during a scheduled static fire test at Cape Canaveral's SLC-36, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket NG-4 suffered a catastrophic explosion immediately after ignition of its seven BE-4 engines.The explosion destroyed the first stage, severely damaged both service towers, and completely destroyed the transport erector.Fortunately, no personnel were injured, and the payload of 48 Amazon Leo satellites was not installed at the time.The incident adds to the challenges facing Blue Origin, following a previous mission failure where the second stage malfunctioned.

This explosion jeopardizes upcoming NASA lunar missions, including the Blue Moon Mark 1 and VIPER rover launches, and could impact the timeline for the crewed Blue Moon Mark 2 mission.

Although the FAA will not investigate due to the incident not being an actual launch, repairing the pad will take significant time, as SLC-36 is the sole New Glenn launch facility.

Historical context shows that large rocket explosions during static fire tests are rare but have occurred, such as the Falcon 9 SLC-40 incident in 2016 and the Soviet N1 lunar rocket in 1969.The aerospace community will closely monitor Blue Origin's recovery efforts, which are expected to be lengthy.