Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has encountered two recent failures in its efforts to get orbital-class New Glenn rockets ready for future launches from Florida, Bloomberg News reported today.
For its first-ever launch, set for this fall, New Glenn is scheduled to send two small probes to Mars, to study the Red Planet’s magnetosphere for NASA’s Escapade mission. (Update: Blue Origin says that first New Glenn mission will launch no earlier than Oct. 13.)
Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg said the failures damaged rocket hardware for the two launches that are due to come afterward.
No injuries were reported in either incident, according to Bloomberg. One incident was said to involve the crumpling of a section of a New Glenn rocket that was destined for the second launch, in part due to worker error. The other incident reportedly involved an upper rocket portion for the third scheduled launch that failed during stress testing, resulting in an explosion.
A Blue Origin spokesperson told GeekWire that the company continues to be on track to start launching New Glenn this year, and that all flight hardware is complete.
“We’re constantly testing new hardware and configurations. Those tests, including ones with anomalies, allow us to make our future hardware and systems more robust,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We are ramping our production efforts up across the board and look forward to even more flights next year.”
Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin has encountered a string of delays in the development of the New Glenn rocket, which is underway at its facilities in Florida. Last year, Bezos enlisted former Amazon executive Dave Limp as Blue Origin’s CEO to bring a “sense of urgency” to the New Glenn program and the company’s other space initiatives.
New Glenn is expected to play a significant role in launching broadband internet satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation, and in June, the Department of Defense said New Glenn would be eligible for a share of future launch contracts for national security payloads.
This report has been updated with comments from Blue Origin.