{"id":61615,"date":"2026-08-06T22:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-identifies-engine-issue-behind-new-glenn-explosion\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T11:46:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:46:03","slug":"blue-origin-identifies-engine-issue-behind-new-glenn-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-identifies-engine-issue-behind-new-glenn-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin identifies engine issue behind New Glenn explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[CDATA[\n\n<figure id=\"attachment_73493\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73493\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"--><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"100%\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260529_NG-4_static_fire_explosion.jpg\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73493\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket exploded on the pad at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as the result of an anomaly during a static fire test on Thursday, May 28. The test was in preparation for a planned launch as soon as June 4. Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><p><em><strong>Correction Aug. 6, 8:52 p.m. EDT (0052 UTC): Fixed a line suggesting that Amazon Leo satellites were on the New Glenn rocket when it exploded. That was not the case.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said an issue with the main oxygen valve on a BE-4 engine was the source of the explosion that destroyed a New Glenn rocket during a static fire in May ahead of the company\u2019s fourth orbital flight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe anomaly originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines, which was later confirmed by hardware recovery and inspections,\u201d Limp wrote in a social media post that came more than two months after the blast that damaged Blue Origin\u2019s sole orbital launch site, Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral. \u201cExtensive component-level and engine hotfire tests have been conducted to understand the failure mode better and inform mitigations.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;width:100%;padding-top:56.25%;overflow:hidden;\"><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/joUcagkuvQg?si=e2Zqdo7lb-CVLWbt\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The New Glenn rocket is powered by a total of seven BE-4 engines on its first stage. They\u2019re fueled by a combination of liquid methane and liquid oxygen and are each capable of producing 640,000 pounds of force at liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin flew three New Glenn missions prior to the May 28 explosion. The rocket was being readied for a launch of 48 Amazon Leo satellites, but the payload was safe in another facility and far away from the rocket when the explosion occurred.<\/p>\n<p>Since the incident, Blue Origin mostly focused its updates on the repairs being done to the launch complex in service of the goal of returning to flight before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">New doors are going up at our Integration Facility at LC-36. Each of the six door panels on the North side stands 88 feet tall and weighs approximately 40,000 pounds for a total door opening width of approximately 196\u2032. The South end comes next. pic.twitter.com\/pIilnFZNLv<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dave Limp (@davill) July 30, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Limp said based on their understanding on the anomaly that led to the explosion, \u201cthe path forward is clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re making small modifications to the valve that can be quickly retrofitted to existing engines,\u201d Limp wrote. \u201cWe\u2019re manufacturing the updated hardware, which will be ready by the end of this month. In parallel, we\u2019re working through the remaining fault tree analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Other engine user<\/h4>\n<p>United Launch Alliance (ULA) also relies on the BE-4 engine for its Vulcan rocket. It uses two BE-4 engines to power the rocket\u2019s first stage.<\/p>\n<p>The BE-4 engines designed for the Vulcan rocket are not identical to those used by New Glenn, since the latter includes features for relight, landing and reuse.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to Spaceflight Now, a ULA spokesperson said that Blue Origin will perform the necessary modifications to the Vulcan BE-4 engines. That work with happen both at ULA\u2019s Decatur, Alabama, rocket manufacturing plant as well as at its Cape Canaveral facilities.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_72559\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-72559\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"100%\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-Plume-Feature-Image.jpg\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-72559\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An anomalous plume is visible from one of the Vulcan\u2019s solid rocket motors during the launch of the USSF-87 mission on Feb. 12, 2026. Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>ULA\u2019s most recent flight of Vulcan was the USSF-87 mission for the U.S. Space Force back in February 2026. An problem with one of the solid rocket boosters (SRB) on that mission \u2014 unrelated to the BE-4 engines \u2014 caused the launch vehicle to be grounded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe integrated U.S. government and contractor team (ULA\/Northrop Grumman\/U.S. Space Force) is actively investigating and continues to work through the technical data, available imagery and collected debris from the SRB anomaly,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThe investigation is robust including causal analysis, technical analysis, lifecycle testing and much more. While we will not fly until we conduct a thorough investigation, identify root cause and implement corrective action, but we are working hard to have Vulcan\u2019s return to flight this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Part of that return to flight plan included a series of fueling tests that have been happening out at the pad at Space Launch Complex 41. The company is working with its low Earth orbit (LEO)-optimized Centaur upper stage and was expected to perform a full wet dress rehearsal today, following early tanking tests with just new Centaur.<\/p>\n<h4>Ripple effects<\/h4>\n<p>Blue Origin continues to hope to return New Glenn to flight before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>New Glenn is capable of launching more Amazon Leo\u2019s satellites per flight than the four other vehicles it contracted to fly its broadband internet satellites (Atlas 5, Ariane 6, Falcon 9 and Vulcan).<\/p>\n<p>In a similar vein, AST SpaceMobile was also counting on having access to New Glenn this year to fly batches of eight of its BlueBird Block 2 satellites at once. For comparison, a Falcon 9 rocket, like the one that flew the BlueBird 11-13 mission on Wednesday, can only carry three of the satellites at once.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_71093\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71093\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"100%\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251008_BlueMoon_mk1.jpeg\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71093\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s rendering of Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander on the surface of the Moon. Graphic: Blue Origin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA is also relying on the return to flight of New Glenn in order for the company to demonstrate its cargo lunar landers called Blue Moon Mark 1. The first of these, <i>Endurance<\/i>, was originally slated to fly around the end of this summer, but is now being pushed to early next year at the soonest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are working to have serial number one ready and stored in a quiescent state for when New Glenn is ready,\u201d said John Couluris, Blue Origin\u2019s senior vice president of Lunar Permanence, during a recent NASA tour of its Florida facilities. \u201cWe expect that launch to occur in Q1 of 2027. And once that\u2019s complete, we\u2019ll now continue on to serial numbers two, three and four.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket exploded on the pad at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as the result of an anomaly during a static fire test on Thursday, May 28. The test was in preparation for a planned launch as soon as June 4. Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight NowCorrection Aug. 6, 8:52 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61622,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61615\/revisions\/61622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}