An uncrewed rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin exploded into a massive fireball Thursday night during a launchpad test.

Videos showed the 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket igniting on the pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., at around 9 p.m. local time before erupting into a bright orange ball of fire, engulfing the surrounding area and shaking nearby homes.

Blue Origin confirmed it had experienced an “anomaly” during a so-called “hot-fire” test, which is when a rocket is fired up while remaining anchored to the ground.

"Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it," Bezos said in a post on X, adding it was “too early to know the root cause” of what happened.

Bezos confirmed that all personnel were safe and accounted for.

Elon Musk, Bezos’s primary rival in the commercial space race, posted on X, “Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly,“ adding it was “Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.”

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement: “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.”

Space Launch Delta of the U.S. Space Force, which is responsible for all space launch operations from the East Coast, said officials were working with Blue Origin to determine the exact cause of the incident, adding, “These operations often involve developmental systems and emerging technologies, and the nature of such testing carries inherent risk, including the potential for anomalies.”

The explosion marks the latest setback for Blue Origin’s New Glenn project for delivering spacecraft to orbit.

The New Glenn rocket was temporarily grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration in April after a failed launch that left a satellite in the wrong orbit, with Blue Origin blaming a bad engine for the issue.

Earlier this week, NASA announced it had awarded Blue Origin a $188 million contract for New Glenn to deliver rovers to the moon's surface. The contracts are part of NASA's broader Artemis program, which aims to establish a lunar base, where astronauts can live and work long-term with the ultimate goal of studying the moon and its origins.

Isaacman said NASA would provide further information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.

Blue Origin was founded by Bezos in 2000 with the stated aim of reducing the cost of space travel and space tourism, and turning it into an effective business model that eventually can be affordable to people other than the ultra-wealthy.

The company achieved major success when it launched an unmanned rocket in 2015 and then hit headlines worldwide when Bezos and his brother took part in the company’s first manned spaced flight in 2021.

In April 2025, Katy Perry and Bezos’s wife Lauren Sanchez were among a group of six women who took part in Blue Origin's 11th and most high-profile tourist space flight.

The company has designed two flagship rockets, New Shephard and New Glenn, with the purpose of them being reusable, dramatically reducing the cost of each flight because they do not need a new one each time.