Then there’s the larger Blue Moon Mark 2 lander, which will fly a larger and more powerful version of the New Glenn rocket with nine first-stage engines known as the 9×4. Along with SpaceX’s Starship vehicle, NASA hopes the Mark 2 lander will carry humans to the moon regularly and soon.
The infrastructure of the pad was seriously damaged
It is too early to determine the effects of this failure, but they will be significant. Initial reports from sources indicate that the launch infrastructure on the LC-36A was severely damaged. One of the lightning towers may not be salvageable, and the carrier may be damaged beyond repair, the source said.
The company recently began construction on a second New Glenn launch pad nearby, LC-36B. However, the work there is in the initial stage. However, it is possible that completing this new launch tower could be faster than rebuilding the LC-36A. The new Glenn will almost certainly not launch again in 2026, and frankly, given the concerns about the launch site in the first half of 2027, that would be heroic.
Blue Origin is doing a lot of development work on the larger 9×4 rocket, which is expected to be the mainstay of the fleet over the smaller 7×2 rocket variant that blasted off Thursday evening in Florida. It is possible that the company is now devoting all its efforts to completing work on this larger rocket.
Bezos, who made his fortune from Amazon, has largely funded Blue Origin since its inception a quarter century ago. He invested tens of billions of dollars in the company. Fortunately for Blue Origin, it has the financial resources to carry the company through this setback and accelerate its recovery efforts. NASA will also be eager to get Blue Origin up and running as soon as possible.
If there’s a small silver lining, it’s that the rocket that exploded Thursday night didn’t carry the payload of the Amazon Leo internet satellites. They were safe, awaiting activation at a nearby integration facility.
