A rocket being tested by Jeff Bezos’ space company exploded Thursday night, sending an enormous ball of fire into the sky.
Blue Origin was preparing one of its New Glenn rockets for a coming mission at its launch complex near Cape Canaveral, Fla., when the incident occurred. Spaceflight news and tracking site NSF captured video of the incident , showing how the rocket went up in a plume of flame while standing on a launchpad.
Bezos, the company’s founder and owner, said in a social-media post that personnel were accounted for and safe. Blue Origin would rebuild after the incident, he said: “Very rough day.”
A spokesman for the Space Force, which oversees the property including Blue Origin’s site, said there were no injuries or fatalities and that emergency personnel had responded to the explosion.
Military officials, working with the company and others, are evaluating data to determine what might have caused the incident, the spokesman said.
Bezos’ Blue Origin has been pushing to step up flights of New Glenn, a powerful rocket the company launched for the first time last year. In November, it demonstrated it could capture the New Glenn booster for reuse .
During New Glenn’s inaugural commercial mission earlier this year, the rocket didn’t perform as expected , leaving a satellite from AST SpaceMobile in the wrong location.
Blue Origin has been looking to move past that misfire and begin launching satellites for Amazon.com . Amazon said in a social-media post Wednesday that 48 of its internet satellites were installed in part of a New Glenn vehicle for a coming flight.
That mission is certain to be delayed as Blue Origin assesses the damage from Thursday’s explosion and works on a plan to remake the site. Other flights, including for NASA, might also be pushed back.
The launchpad hit in the explosion is the only site from which the company can launch New Glenn.
Explosions on pads are rare, but a risk for operators, which spend significant sums developing launch infrastructure. One of SpaceX’s Starship spaceships exploded during a ground test last June.
Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com
