Jeff Bezos dealt a blow as Blue Origin rocket engine explodes during testing

In a setback for Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, an explosion occurred during testing of its BE-4 rocket. The incident, which took place last month at the company’s facility in West Texas, saw an engine detonate about 10 seconds into the test. Blue Origin confirmed that the issue occurred during testing of Vulcan’s Flight Engine 3 and is currently assessing the cause. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, and the company is working on remedial actions. Blue Origin immediately notified its customer ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, about the incident. The failure of the BE-4 test could potentially further delay the first launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket, which was already rescheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.

Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin is a private space company that not only manufactures rockets for corporate clients but also conducts space tourism flights. In fact, in 2021, the company successfully carried out its first private space tourism flight, with actor William Shatner among the passengers. The battle for space tourism dominance involves other high-profile billionaires like Richard Branson, who beat Bezos to space on a Virgin Galactic mission in July 2021, and Elon Musk, whose SpaceX launched its first private crewed flight into orbit in September of the same year. Technical failures and explosions are not uncommon in the industry, as evidenced by SpaceX’s Starship rocket explosion in April. Musk, however, emphasized that the failure provided valuable insights for future endeavors.