The mishap, which occurred during a test fire of the engines for the New Glenn rocket's launch next week, comes at a critical time for Jeff Bezos' business empire. His companies Blue Origin and Amazon are seeking to establish themselves as viable challengers in the heavy-lift and global satellite internet network industries, competing with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

"All personnel are accounted for and safe. It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding…

Blue Origin says it has experienced an "anomaly", a term commonly used by rocket companies to describe a launch failure or explosion.