Repairs after New Glenn explosion could take until 2028

Bad news for spaceflight: Repairs to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, will take longer than expected. The launch pad was severely damaged during the explosion of a rocket from the US space company Blue Origin.

It will take some time to restore the facility, Jared Isaacman, director of the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), told US broadcaster CNBC. It is even possible that the work will not be completed until 2028.

The fully fueled New Glenn heavy-lift rocket exploded during a test on Thursday. The fireball caused severe damage to launch pad LC-36A. Isaacman inspected the accident site on Friday along with Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp.

NASA definitely wants Blue Origin to succeed, Isaacman said. That means: "Recovering, getting the pad recovered, providing subject matter expertise, root cause analysis for sure. Let's figure out what's broken, and then we got to keep moving forward."

Setback for the spaceflight industry

The accident is a major setback for the spaceflight industry: the destroyed launch pad is the only one from which the New Glenn can launch. The New Glenn was scheduled to fly several missions in the second half of the year. Among other things, Blue Origin was supposed to launch a moon mission with the lander Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance for NASA.

This also has economic consequences for Blue Origin: NASA will now rely on arch-rival SpaceX as an alternative for flights into space. "In terms of heavy lift, you know, real heavy lift, you’ve got SpaceX and Blue Origin, and obviously one of them is down a pad right now," said Isaacman.

This is also a problem for Amazon: The sister company is currently building a constellation for a satellite internet service. New Glenn was planned for satellite transports here.

(wpl)