Blue Origin launchpad may not be restored until 2028: NASA’s Isaacman
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told CNBC on Monday that “it’s going to take some serious time” to repair the launch pad damaged by last week’s Blue Origin rocket explosion.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin was conducting a hot-fire test of its massive New Glenn rocket at the Space Force launch facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday when the rocket exploded into a fireball. Bezos confirmed all Blue Origin staff were safe following the incident and called it a “very difficult day” while vowing to rebuild.
The 2028 timeframe is “in the realm” of a possible launchpad recovery, Isaacman said in an interview at CNBC’s CEO Council Summit.
“We’re all generally organized around the idea that we want Blue Origin to be absolutely hugely successful,” Isaacman said. “So getting better, getting the pad repaired, providing subject matter expertise, of course providing root cause analysis. Let’s find out what’s broken and then we have to move forward.”
Isaacman, Bezos and Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp traveled He was at the launch pad on Friday and addressed employees of the space startup. Limp wrote on a Saturday Publish on X Blue Origin has since gained some access to the launch pad and is developing a plan for rebuilding.
NASA has several contracts with Blue Origin as part of the Artemis program, the space agency’s effort to return American astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028. NASA has contacted Blue Origin to launch an uncrewed Blue Moon lander, known as MK1, atop New Glenn later this year.
Getting the lander to the moon would require a rocket that could carry a significant amount of mass, Isaacman said. That would likely put NASA in “Falcon Heavy land,” he said, referring to the super heavy-lift rocket developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“In terms of heavy lift, you know, real heavy lift, you have SpaceX and Blue Origin, and frankly one of them is struggling right now,” Isaacman said.
The new Glenn was designed by Blue Origin to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan heavy-lift rocket.
Blue Origin has only one New Glenn launch pad, making Thursday’s explosion a particularly devastating accident. It plans to operate a New Glenn launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, but that pad is in development.
“We have a lot of data, in fact, this was one of the first things my team made available, which was, hey, the history of human spaceflight, about every launch pad we’ve built, every launch pad we’ve had to rebuild, here are the timelines,” Isaacman said. Isaacman said. “Even if you move at a fairly fast pace, this will take a significant amount of time.”
The incident also affects Blue Origin’s other customers. Amazon. Blue Origin was preparing to transport 48 satellites for Amazon’s nascent Leo internet-from-space initiative this week as part of several upcoming missions.
Amazon, which Bezos founded in 1994, has a pending deadline set by the Federal Communications Commission to distribute about half of its constellation by next month. It is also trying to bring its Leo service online for commercial customers later this year, aiming to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.
AST Space MobileThe company, which installs a satellite system directly on the device, also relies on Blue Origin for some rocket launches. The stock fell more than 6% on Monday after falling almost 17% on Friday.
