MOSCOW: Jeff Bezos, head of the American aerospace company Blue Origin, announced that the cause of the explosion of the New Glenn heavy roc...
MOSCOW: Jeff Bezos, head of the American aerospace company Blue Origin, announced that the cause of the explosion of the New Glenn heavy rocket has not yet been determined.
NASA will provide information on whether the incident will affect the Artemis and Moon Base programs, said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
TASS has compiled the main information on the situation.
Incident during testing
- Earlier on Thursday, the New Glenn rocket exploded during a propulsion test.
- The incident occurred around 9:00 p.m. local time (4:00 a.m. Moscow time (1:00 a.m. GMT) on May 29) at the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida. The company confirmed on social media that an "anomaly" occurred during the tests.
- No Blue Origin employees were injured in the incident, founder Jeff Bezos said.
Possible causes
- The cause of the explosion of the New Glenn heavy-lift rocket has not yet been determined, Bezos said.
- Specialists from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration will assist in determining the cause of the explosion of the New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
- A fuel leak in the lower stage is one of the possible causes of the explosion of the rocket, cosmonautics historian Alexander Zheleznyakov told TASS.
- He noted that, judging by the footage that has been distributed, the fire and some kind of flash occurred in the tail section of the stage.
Impact on NASA's Lunar Program
- Isaacman promised to provide information on whether the incident will impact the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.
- The explosion during the New Glenn heavy rocket test could extend the timeline of the US lunar program, cosmonautics historian Alexander Zheleznyakov said in an interview with TASS.
- The rocket, as Zheleznyakov noted, was supposed to launch the Blue Moon lunar lander, which NASA ordered from Blue Origin, and was also supposed to be used for cargo launches and for testing certain elements of the US lunar program in low-Earth orbit.
- Furthermore, New Glenn was supposed to launch the Amazon Leo satellite constellation into orbit.
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