So, that was a big badda-boom — very nearly a Wickwick Event. I’ll explain that last part in just a moment, but first, the big news.
Thursday at about 9 p.m. local time, a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded at Space Launch Complex 36 during a static fire test of the massive rocket’s seven powerful BE-4 engines. That same booster was supposed to be a part of next month’s planned fourth launch of a New Glenn, tasked with putting Amazon Leo internet satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). But to borrow from John Cleese, this is an ex-rocket.
“We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test,” Blue Origin posted rather dryly on social media. “All personnel have been accounted for.”
Thank goodness for that last part because, as you’re about to see, the explosion was one of those Earth-shattering kabooms you usually only hope to read about.
With sound: pic.twitter.com/LwfZpcsxWe
— Edd Gorenstein 🧩✡️🏴🏰🆒🥛 (@EddGorenstein) May 29, 2026
“Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard,” rival SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted.
The memes came fast and furious, but this one is probably the thread winner.
— THE-VIRTUOSO (@MusindoKudzayi) May 29, 2026
SpaceX has certainly had its share of failures, including one just last week during Starship Flight Test 12. While the launch went off without a hitch, not enough of the all-new Raptor V3 engines managed to relight for the boost-back phase. So instead of making a soft water landing in the Gulf of America as planned, the booster dropped like a rock and hit the water so hard that the FAA demanded a halt to further flight tests pending an investigation.
In this business, if you aren’t blowing things up, you probably aren’t making any progress, and you almost certainly aren’t learning enough. But some explosions are bigger than others, and… wow.
How big a boom was it, really? Maybe this followup post from Blue Origin will help explain:
Debris from our recent hotfire anomaly may wash ashore in the coming days/weeks. If you encounter any debris, do not touch or approach it for your safety.
Please report the location immediately:
Call: 1-321-222-4355
Email: [email protected]— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 29, 2026
While I assume that is hardly the first warning of its kind issued after a failed rocket test or launch in Florida, it’s the first I’ve seen. But that big badda-boom reminded me of a meme from 2022 that, once you know about it, will never leave your head.
As you might know, NASA is saddled with the uber-expensive Space Launch System (SLS) for a minimum of five Artemis missions at $4 billion per launch. That’s just the cost of the rocket itself. SLS development, the Orion space capsule it carries, and all the rest — if you have to ask, we can’t afford it. Instead of being designed by engineers for safety and efficiency, SLS was dictated by Congress to please contractors.
Which is exactly why we can’t seem to get rid of the very rocket we can’t afford to launch.
So just before the unmanned Artemis I mission launched four years ago, an Ars Technica commenter named Wickwick proposed a novel solution to the SLS problem: “A catastrophic failure of the first launch of the NASA SLS rocket, which destroys enough of the ground systems to scuttle the program.”
New Glenn is a good rocket, still going through the typical development woes, and doesn’t deserve to get scuttled like SLS does. But, dang, if last night’s explosion didn’t look like a Wickwick Event.
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos called it a “Very rough day,” but added that the company will “rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
Yes, it is.
Recommended: Elon Musk Wants a Trillion-Dollar Payday, but There’s One Little Catch
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