News

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes during testing in Florida

Published

5 months ago

May 29, 2026

Blue Origin’s New Glenn mega-rocket just exploded during testing at a launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to live streams from NASASpaceFlight.com and SpaceFlight Now. Blue Origin later confirmed the explosion.

Jeff Bezos’ space company was performing a static fire test ahead of an anticipated fourth launch of the new rocket in the coming weeks, which was supposed to carry Amazon Leo internet satellites to space. That means the rocket was likely fully fueled, contributing to what is one of the largest rocket explosions in U.S. history and the worst failure in Blue Origin’s existence.

Blue Origin said in an X post Thursday evening that “[a]ll personnel have been accounted for,” and Bezos wrote that they were “safe.” The company didn’t say what went wrong, only that an “anomaly” occurred.

“It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it,” Bezos wrote.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a post late Thursday that the agency will “work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets.”

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told TechCrunch it was aware of the explosion and said there was “no impact to air traffic.” NASA and the Space Force did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The explosion likely means Blue Origin will have to pause the New Glenn rocket program for an extended period of time while it works through what went wrong. Blue Origin had been planning to attempt as many as 12 launches of New Glenn this year, after the company spent around a decade developing it in an attempt to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The company is also supposed to help power NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon, with the agency highlighting Blue Origin’s expected role in that program earlier this week. Isaacman said Thursday that NASA will “provide any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.”

Blue Origin has been aiming to launch national security missions for the Pentagon as well.

“Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard,” Elon Musk wrote on X shortly after the explosion. “I hope you recover quickly.”

The explosion comes just a few weeks after Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket flew for the third time ever. That mission suffered its own failure when the New Glenn upper stage failed to put an AST SpaceMobile satellite into orbit, causing a total loss of the mission. Just last week, the FAA cleared New Glenn to fly again after Blue Origin completed an investigation into the cause of the failure.

A very new, late rocket

Blue Origin has spent years developing New Glenn while it used its New Shepard program to test out smaller-scale sub-orbital rockets. While New Shepard has ferried a fairly regular cadence of wealthy people and celebrities (along with some science missions) to the edge of space, Blue Origin was constantly working in the background to develop a rocket that could put real commercial payloads like large satellites into orbit.

That work took a long time — longer than Blue Origin had anticipated — but finally came to a head in January 2025, when the company flew New Glenn for the first time.

New Glenn appeared to be a fairly successful rocket right off the bat. It reached orbit during that first flight, though the booster stage exploded before Blue Origin could attempt to land it on a drone ship in the ocean.

Blue Origin was even more successful with New Glenn’s second flight, though, in November 2025. During that mission the company launched twin spacecraft to Mars for NASA. Blue Origin also landed its first booster stage during New Glenn’s second mission.

That allowed the company to re-fly the booster on New Glenn’s third mission, showing not only the ability to recover the first stage, but refurbish it for re-use — a critical step in reducing the overall cost of operating a launch business.

The re-used rocket booster had no problems flying again, and even landed a second time on one of Blue Origin’s drone ships, during New Glenn’s third mission in April 2026. But the company experienced a cryogenic failure in the upper stage during mission three, which led to the loss of the satellite.

This upcoming fourth mission was supposed to be the first of 24 launches that Amazon has contracted Blue Origin for. Amazon is currently building out a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet network, which it calls Leo. On Wednesday, Amazon touted its ability to rely on Blue Origin to build the network, calling New Glenn a “reusable, heavy-lift rocket.”

Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch late Thursday that no Leo satellites were on board for this test.

Late Thursday, Congressman Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), who represents the district that is home to Cape Canaveral, wrote on X that he had spoken with NASA administrator Jared Isaacman about the explosion.

“I am grateful there were no reported injuries and thankful for the first responders, engineers, and launch crews who acted quickly. Praying for Florida’s Space Coast and everyone involved,” he said.

Related Topics:Blue explodes Florida Glenn Origins rocket testing

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High cost of living: 'It will yield no result' – YPP’s Agada faults Tinubu

Published

1 hour ago

October 24, 2026

PlateauReports

The presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, Architect Peter Agada, has criticised the All Progressives Congress, APC, administration’s 90-day action plan to ease the cost of living, describing it as a campaign strategy that does not reflect Nigeria’s economic realities.

Agada told reporters in Abuja that the government had introduced several economic interventions without achieving the desired results.

The criticism followed the announcement by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, that the National Economic Council, NEC, had approved a 90-day plan to address the rising cost of living.

Agada argued that the government should consider a Labour-direct ward-to-ward development strategy, which he said could reach Nigerians within 60 days.

“Labour-direct the ward-to-ward strategy remains an option that can capture all Nigerians within 60 days of implementation. We said 60 days; about 20 days are gone before the elections,” he said.

He urged the government to engage individuals with practical solutions to improve the economy, particularly at the grassroots level.

According to him, the government should incorporate the Labour Direct Information Network into its proposed monitoring dashboard to track projects, employment, production, feedstock, outputs, taxes and revenue through a single application.

Agada also questioned the effectiveness of previous government measures, including subsidy interventions, fuel price reduction proposals and the removal of illegal levies.

“I think that I align with those who opined that the economic team of Mr. President has failed to address Nigeria’s numerous economic challenges,” he said.

He added that the government’s repeated announcements had raised doubts about the effectiveness of its economic management.

“All his intervention plans, including the reduction of pump price, which did not go in line with NNPC and CNG, and he also talked about the removal of illegal levies, and nothing was done,” Agada said.

The YPP candidate questioned the timing of the 90-day plan, arguing that its implementation period extended beyond the forthcoming election.

“These promises back and forth are for Nigerians to believe and vote them back into office,” he said.

“If you believe in the rules of the game they are playing, there are just 85 days to the election, and you are saying a 90-day timeline to cushion the cost of living. So after the election, what happens?”

Agada further alleged that previous interventions announced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration had failed to deliver the expected relief to Nigerians.

He cited proposed funding for manufacturing, micro, small and medium enterprises, conditional grants, grain and fertiliser distribution, agricultural production and rice farmers as examples of earlier measures.

He also questioned the decision to remove tariffs on food imports, arguing that the policy had failed to bring food inflation under control.

The YPP candidate noted that other announced measures included funding for compressed natural gas, CNG, infrastructure development and an increase in the minimum wage.

Agada urged Nigerians to scrutinise the government’s latest economic proposals and demand accountability for previous commitments.

He said the proposed monitoring dashboard should include monthly employment figures to establish whether government interventions were creating jobs.

“Let us look at these things critically: if he says he is looking at a raft of measures now to be able to change what he has cost in the past three years, how feasible is it going to be? And that is why we are saying that Nigerians need to be circumspect; we need to hold government to account,” he said.

He maintained that without measurable results, the 90-day action plan could amount to a political strategy ahead of the 2027 general election.

High cost of living: ‘It will yield no result’ – YPP’s Agada faults Tinubu

Health

Ebola: Uganda restricts transit for travellers from DRC

Published

1 hour ago

October 24, 2026

PlateauReports

Uganda has barred travellers with a history of travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from transiting through the country as it investigates the traveller who tested positive for Ebola disease in Nigeria.

The Ugandan Ministry of Health announced the measure on Friday, alongside the reinstatement of traveller locator forms “to facilitate timely follow-up and contact tracing where necessary.”

“The Ministry of Health wishes to update the country on an ongoing investigation into the traveller who tested positive for Bundibugyo Virus Disease in Nigeria.

“Available information indicates that the traveller did not exhibit symptoms at the time of departure from Uganda. However, investigations are continuing to establish the timing of symptom onset and the circumstances surrounding her infection,” the ministry noted in a statement signed by its Director General of Health Services, Charles Olaro.

It added that Uganda is working with Nigerian health authorities to establish the traveller’s full travel history, movements and possible exposure. It has also requested additional information from Nigeria, including detailed travel records and genomic sequencing results, where available.

The country insisted that it “remains Ebola-free.”

Uganda had earlier battled an outbreak of Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which was declared on 15 May 2026 after cases were imported from the DRC.

The country recorded 20 confirmed cases, including two deaths, before declaring the outbreak over in August after 42 days without a new locally acquired case.

As of 20 October, the DRC had recorded 9,704 confirmed cases and 4,687 deaths across eight provinces, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Uganda tightens controls

The ministry said infection prevention and control measures had been reinforced at all points of entry and exit and health facilities, while surveillance continued across the country.

It also warned that provisions of Uganda’s Public Health Act would be invoked where public health requirements were breached.

The ministry urged communities to report suspected unauthorised border crossings to relevant authorities for screening and public health follow-up.

The ministry urged travellers and the public to remain calm and vigilant, practise proper hand hygiene and comply with screening and other public health measures.

Earlier Uganda clarification

Uganda’s latest measures follow an earlier clarification after Nigeria announced its Ebola case and said the patient had arrived on an international flight from Uganda.

On 21 October, Uganda said the traveller’s passage through the country does not establish that she contracted Ebola there. The ministry said preliminary information indicated that she had travelled to eastern DRC for business before passing through Uganda and that she had not shown symptoms while in the country.

Uganda also said at the time that it had no active Ebola cases. The latest statement maintains that position, saying investigations with Nigerian authorities are still ongoing.

Nigeria case linked to Kenya

On Friday, Nigeria announced a genomic finding showing that the virus detected in its patient is highly similar to the virus found in Kenya’s first imported case.

Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, said the finding does not establish that the Nigerian patient was infected in Kenya, as there was no evidence that she had travelled there.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) had earlier said it was investigating a possible link between the Nigerian and Kenyan cases because both patients travelled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on 3 October.

Kenya’s first case was imported from the DRC through Uganda. The country has since recorded nine confirmed cases, including two deaths, with the eight additional cases linked to the first patient.