'Rockets are hard': Elon Musk responds to Jeff Bezos' rocket explosion as his own SpaceX glides to a $1.8T IPO

1 hour ago 3

Rudro Chakrabarti

Sun, May 31, 2026 astatine 10:15 AM CDT 7 min read

When Jeff Bezos' New Glenn rocket erupted into a fireball connected a Cape Canaveral motorboat pad precocious connected May 28, the absorption that traveled fastest came from his main rival.

"Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard," Elon Musk wrote connected X. (1)

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It was uncommon solidarity betwixt 2 billionaires who've spent a decennary trading jabs implicit space. And it came arsenic Musk's SpaceX sits days from what could beryllium the largest IPO successful history, portion Blue Origin stares down months connected the ground.

What caused the Blue Origin New Glenn detonation

Footage from Spaceflight Now shows Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploding during a hot-fire test. Fully fueled, the engines were ignited portion the conveyance stayed bolted to the pad, causing 1 of the largest rocket explosions successful US past up of a motorboat planned for the pursuing week. (2)

Residents on Florida's Space Coast reported feeling their homes shake, and Blue Origin aboriginal warned debris could lavation ashore connected section beaches. No 1 was hurt, but Launch Complex 36, Blue Origin's lone operational New Glenn pad, sustained dense damage. (3)

"All unit are accounted for and safe," Bezos wrote connected X. "It's excessively aboriginal to cognize the basal origin but we're already moving to find it. Very unsmooth day, but we'll rebuild immoderate needs rebuilding and get backmost to flying. It's worthy it." (4)

Musk replied underneath: "Ad astra per aspera" — done hardships to the stars. (4)

New Glenn's 2nd nonaccomplishment successful six weeks

The detonation was Blue Origin's 2nd New Glenn setback successful astir six weeks. On April 19, during the rocket's 3rd flight, the first-stage booster landed successfully connected a sea-based platform. But the precocious signifier malfunctioned and failed to present AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 outer to a usable orbit — a full loss. (2) The FAA opened a mishap investigation, and its grounding had been lifted lone astir a week earlier the pad explosion. (5)

The destroyed rocket was meant to alert New Glenn's 4th mission, carrying 48 satellites for Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper), the broadband constellation Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is gathering to rival Starlink. (2) It was the archetypal of 24 launches Amazon had booked with Blue Origin.

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