Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin had the worst possible Thursday night. Around 9 p.m. EDT, their New Glenn rocket exploded in Cape Canaveral, Florida, lighting up the sky with a massive fireball. Flames, smoke, and pieces of the rocket rained down, and you could see the chaos for miles.
It was the worst timing possible since this was supposed to be their final test before the big launch. No one was hurt. The rocket, the launchpad, and apparently a lightning tower were not so lucky.
Blue Origin was doing a static fire test in Florida, getting ready for what would have been New Glenn’s fourth launch. The plan: send Amazon Leo internet satellites into orbit.
Since the rocket was full of fuel, it made the explosion one of the biggest in U.S. history, and definitely the worst fiasco Blue Origin’s ever had.
Everything seemed to start off okay. As the engines fired, something went sideways at the base. Suddenly, fire engulfed the rocket. The first stage – 188 feet tall – burned fast, and before anyone could blink, the 86-foot upper stage started tilting and falling over.
The whole thing was destroyed, and when the smoke cleared, the gantry used to move New Glenn was just gone. One lightning tower vanished, too.
Meanwhile, none of Amazon’s Leo satellites were actually on board for the test, so at least those survived.
The latest booster, cheekily called “No, It’s Necessary,” and its second stage were obliterated. The pad at LC-36 probably took a serious hit, and there are plenty of hangars and test sites around it that might be damaged.
Internet Reacts To Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Explosion in Florida
The internet did not send flowers. Instead, it sent a wave of carbon footprint jokes aimed squarely at the billionaire space race and the perceived hypocrisy of lecturing ordinary people about environmental responsibility.
The dominant theme was unmistakable. “I don’t want to hear about my carbon footprint ever again,” one person wrote. Others ran with it: “Make sure you separate your plastic bottles and take off the labels before putting them in the bin!” one commenter added, while another chimed in: “Don’t use plastic forks, folks.”
The jokes kept coming at Bezos’ expense. “Please sort your cans correctly, Bruce,” one person wrote. “We’re trying to save the planet here.” Another took a sharper turn: “Lol, meanwhile the peasants get fined for plastic straws.”
One commenter cut right to the heart of the criticism with no jokes attached: “Silly Bruce – when they talk about carbon footprint, you are the carbon they want to reduce.”
The irony people online are pointing out is real. While we are told to skip plastic straws because they barely make a dent in plastic waste (the EPA says it’s just a fraction of a percent), this one rocket explosion probably spat out more CO₂ in three minutes than a small neighborhood puts out in a year. Plus, there’s a huge cloud of unburned methane floating around – so much for saving the planet.
