Just hours after Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded in a fireball at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from the same military base, and a United Launch Alliance Atlas V is scheduled to follow Friday evening. The SpaceX mission lifted off at 8:57 a.m. from Space Launch Complex 40, carrying 29 Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster flew for the 16th time and landed on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic. ULA's Atlas V is targeting a 7:33 p.m.
Window from Launch Complex 41 for the Amazon Leo 7 mission. The two launch complexes sit more than six miles north of Blue Origin's Launch Complex 36, where New Glenn's first stage was destroyed during a static fire test at 9 p.m. Thursday. The rocket hardware was engulfed in a massive fireball, damaging much of the pad.
Blue Origin had been preparing for an Amazon satellite launch as soon as next week. The company now faces months of delays.
It had aimed to fly at least eight missions this year but managed only one, New Glenn's April debut, before the explosion. The blast carries consequences beyond Blue Origin. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency would assess "any impact" on the Artemis and Moon base programs.
Both Blue Origin and SpaceX are contracted to land humans on the Moon in 2028. Neither of their crew-capable launch systems is currently operational.
SpaceX's Super Heavy booster crashed in the Gulf of Mexico last week, and Starship remains grounded by the FAA.
"The explosion will significantly impact the timeline for deploying NASA's Moon base," said Megan Argo, an astrophysicist at the University of Lancashire. "The rebuild of the pad facility will set back their launch plans, possibly for a considerable amount of time."
Blue Origin had won a $188 million contract to carry rovers to the lunar surface just two days before the blast. The New Glenn rocket, standing 29 stories tall, was also set to carry the Blue Moon Mark 2 lander, competing with SpaceX's Starship for the first crewed Moon landing since 1972.
Space Launch Delta 45 said it was prepared to support the other launches despite the explosion, stating the Eastern Range "remains fully mission capable." The SpaceX launch was the 36th orbital mission from the Space Coast in 2026. ULA's Atlas V, if it flies, will be the 37th.
ULA has only seven Atlas V rockets left after Friday's mission, with one reserved for Amazon and the rest for Boeing Starliner flights. The company's Vulcan rocket remains grounded after a booster nozzle burned off on its last flight.
Vulcan uses the same BE-4 engines Blue Origin supplies for New Glenn, a potential compounding problem if the engine design is linked to the explosion.
Elon Musk responded to the New Glenn explosion on X with two words: "Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard."
