An uncrewed Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on a Florida launchpad during a test on Thursday, in a major setback for Jeff Bezos’ space venture as it seeks to narrow the gap with Elon Musk's IPO-bound SpaceX.

The New Glenn rocket experienced an "anomaly", the company said, exploding during a test.

Blue Origin founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos said it was a ”very rough day” for the company, but it was too early to know the “root cause” of the incident.