ESA’s Director General, Josef Aschbacher, was “saddened” and “concerned” by the images showing the explosion of a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket during an engine test at a Florida launch pad last week, saying the damage was “quite big.”
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who founded the space technology company, confirmed that no one was injured and that all personnel were accounted for, but the damage it caused is significant.
“It's certainly a huge setback; this is not good for anyone in the space community,” Aschbacher said on Euronews’ interview programme 12 Minutes With.
The explosion has not only hampered Bezos’ hopes for Blue Origin to compete with rival Elon Musk's SpaceX in the commercial space race. Last week’s setback could also complicate ESA’s American counterpart, NASA, in its lunar ambitions.
Aschbacher noted that such incidents are particularly devastating given “how much effort goes into developing a rocket, developing the engines, testing them, bringing them to orbit.”
