Despite explosion Blue Origin CEO says rocket to fly before year-end

Despite explosion Blue Origin CEO says rocket to fly before year-end Andrew Zinin Lead Editor The CEO of Blue Origin vowed its New Glenn rocket "will fly again before the end of this year" after a recent ground test ended in a massive fireball that damaged the launch platform. That ambitious promise from CEO David Limp, announced in a post late Monday on X, follows last week's colossal explosion at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was a major setback for Blue Origin, the company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, but also NASA, which was counting on the firm to collaborate on upcoming moon missions. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman meanwhile told CNBC that it would "take some serious time to repair" the launch pad. He later said on X that 2028, when New Glenn is slated to carry out lunar rover deliveries, "should be well within what is possible for pad recovery." Blue Origin's setback came at a crucial moment for the company, which is seeking to rival Elon Musk's SpaceX. The Bezos company's New Glenn rocket is meant to participate in NASA's Artemis lunar program, delivering both landers and cargo. SpaceX has seen its own challenges in recent months, and Blue Origin had emerged as a promising alternative for NASA. But New Glenn is key. With its explosion coming shortly after a malfunction that caused a recent satellite mission failure, the anomalies could disrupt NASA's tight mission schedule. NASA is aiming to test an in-orbit rendezvous between a spacecraft and one or two lunar landers in 2027 as part of Artemis III, and carry out a crewed lunar landing before the end of 2028, before the end of US President Donald Trump's time in office. Key concepts The Moon© 2026 AFP