00:00You've probably seen the footage of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploding on the
00:04launch pad.
00:04If you haven't, now you have.
00:11It happened during a procedure called a static fire test, and would have been the last major
00:16milestone for the rocket before its fourth mission, but as you can see, it did not go
00:23as planned.
00:24Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incident, but it's a huge loss for Blue Origin, which
00:28now has a grounded rocket and a demolished launch pad.
00:31And the pad being out of commission is a big deal.
00:33Launch Complex 36 is Blue Origin's only pad capable of supporting a rocket the size
00:38of New Glenn, and without it, a few things come to a screeching halt.
00:42New Glenn's upcoming launch was set to deliver the next 48 Amazon LEO satellites.
00:46It's a wireless internet constellation meant to compete with SpaceX's Starlink network,
00:50and now has one less launch vehicle to deliver the more than 3,000 satellites Amazon plans
00:55to place in low Earth orbit, while SpaceX maintains a significant head start.
01:00This is also bad news for NASA's Artemis program.
01:02NASA contracted Blue Origin and SpaceX to each provide lunar landers for the Artemis missions,
01:07and Blue Origin's lander, Blue Moon, is built to launch aboard New Glenn.
01:11A cargo version of the lander, Blue Moon Mark 1, was scheduled to launch this fall carrying
01:16a suite of NASA payloads designed as the first pieces of the agency's Moon Base 1 phase to
01:21scout and test technologies for a future permanent outpost, but that's now on hold until repairs
01:25at the pad can be completed.
01:27A delay to Mark 1 also means a delay in the development of Blue Moon Mark 2, the version
01:32designed to fly with astronauts, which is exactly what NASA wants to do with the lander on Artemis
01:363 next year.
01:38Artemis 3 is designed as a practice mission for the Orion spacecraft to dock with either or
01:43both lunar landers, which includes a version of SpaceX's Starship.
01:46And NASA has said it's willing to launch with whichever one is ready in time for the
01:49late 2027 liftoff they're aiming for.
01:52Still, there are a lot of qualifications and hurdles both landers have to pass before then,
01:56and there's no guarantee Starship will be ready on NASA's timeline either.
02:00But this latest setback is a big one for Blue Origin, and if they don't make it to
02:03the party for Artemis 3, there's almost zero chance NASA will select Blue Moon as the lander
02:08for the program's first few lunar landing missions, including Artemis 4 and 5.
02:12This isn't the first time we've seen an accident like this, so we do have an idea
02:15how long it could take to get the pad back up and running.
02:18An Antares rocket that exploded just after liftoff in 2014 severely damaged a pad at NASA's
02:23Wild Ops facility, which didn't see another launch for nearly two years.
02:27In 2016, SpaceX suffered a similar accident to New Glenn when a Falcon 9 rocket set to
02:32launch the AMOS-6 satellite exploded during its static fire test at Launch Complex 40.
02:37SpaceX has other pads it was able to use in the interim, but LC-40 didn't see another
02:41launch for just over a year.
02:43Unfortunately, Blue Origin doesn't have the luxury of other launch pads at the moment, so it's
02:46probably safe to assume New Glenn will be out of commission for the foreseeable future,
02:50and we will just have to wait and see how that ends up affecting Artemis in the long run.
02:54Thank you!
02:54See you all in the future!
02:55Thank you!
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