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Jeff Bezos has lost one of his rockets after the Blue Origin spacecraft exploded into flames during a takeoff test in the US.
The test flight ended in a flop before it started after the dramatic explosion rocked the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the surrounding areas in Florida.
While no one was hurt in the incident, the rocket was totalled after the blast which led to a huge fireball engulfing the launch pad and the spacecraft.
Homes were shaken nearby at around 9pm on Thursday as the explosion lit up the area.
The rocket involved in the blast was the New Glenn model, developed by Blue Origin space technology company, founded by Amazon billionaire Bezos in 2000.
Bezos said on X after the accident: ‘It’s too early to know the root cause, but we’re already working to find it.
‘Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.’
New Glenn, named after the NASA astronaut John Glenn, was meant to take off next week carrying internet satellites.
Elon Musk, another billionaire involved in space development and the world’s richest man, offered his condolences to Bezos.
He wrote on X: ‘Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly.’
Musk’s SpaceX Starship spacecraft exploded in a fireball in June last year during the rocket’s test phase.
Blue Origin made headlines in April last year when singer Katy Perry joined an all-female crew along with Bezos’s partner Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn for a suborbital flight lasting 11 minutes.
While the mission, flown on the New Shephard rocket, was billed as a spaceflight promoting equality, it received widespread backlash on social media, with critics calling it ‘pointless.’
How much does Blue Origin rocket cost?
Blue Origin has developed a variety of different spacecraft, including New Glenn.
The project is said to have cost at least £1.8 billion ($2.5 billion).
Each launch is estimated to cost between £50.6 million and £81.85million.
The New Glenn rocket is 322 ft tall and 23 ft wide.
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