Last Thursday’s explosion of the New Glenn rocket, on its launch pad during a test, could hardly be worse news for America’s return to the Moon. Just two days earlier, NASA had unveiled its plans for a Moon Base, which relied heavily on Jeff Bezos’s rocket and his Blue Origin series of lunar landers. As investigators, safety and clean-up crews inspect the wreckage, NASA will be contemplating a major rethink. The options aren’t good.
Explosions on the pad are among the worst things that can happen because of how long repairs can take. If a rocket is to explode, engineers pray that it takes place in the air. Unfortunately, a problem with the New Glenn rocket’s first stage took place during a test run and resulted in its fuel, made of methane and liquid oxygen, igniting in one of the biggest fireballs ever seen. It seems like the damage to the pad is extensive – one of the huge lightning conductor towers has collapsed – but it’s the only pad from which New Glenn can launch. Others are under study, but it’s early days for them.
So New Glenn is grounded for the foreseeable future. It’s estimated that repairs will take well over a year and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. “Very rough day,” Bezos said, “but we’ll rebuild what needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
