The "New Glenn" explodes, pushing the U.S. further away from returning to the Moon
Around 9 p.m. local time on Thursday, the New Glenn rocket spectacularly exploded. The term "spectacular" is used because the mushroom cloud produced was remarkably beautiful, illuminating the entire sky.
Even after the explosion, the lingering fragments of the blast were still visually striking. Fortunately, no casualties occurred—perhaps we should consider this as Jeff Bezos spending a fortune to treat the world to a grand fireworks display.
The New Glenn is a heavy-lift, reusable rocket developed by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s company. It is intended to launch the "Blue Moon" lunar lander as part of NASA's Artemis program to return humans to the Moon. It is one of the two candidate crewed lunar landing systems selected by NASA, with SpaceX's Starship being the preferred option.
In other words, these two companies are in direct competition. However, Musk did not take advantage of the situation. Immediately after the incident, he offered condolences to Blue Origin, posting: "Terrible news—successfully launching rockets is truly difficult."
When Blue Origin responded that there were no injuries, Musk replied in the comments section: "That's unfortunate. I hope you recover quickly."
Whether he secretly rejoiced remains unknown. After all, with the New Glenn's explosion, NASA's reliance on Starship will undoubtedly increase, making SpaceX even harder to replace. Yet considering that Starship has also experienced explosions in the past, Musk and Bezos could well be considered kindred spirits in adversity—mutual respect despite their rivalry.
Beyond the rocket itself, Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, where the launch took place, was also destroyed in the explosion. It's highly unlikely that the New Glenn will fly again this year, and it will probably be delayed until early next year—assuming everything goes smoothly.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1866511690480780/
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