Historic Artemis II Moon Flight + New Glenn Test Explosion Explained | 25:13
NASASpaceflight | 1.47M subscribers | 24,226 views | April 11, 2026
Posted on 04/12/2026 8:08:30 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
As Blue Origin prepares for the next launch of its New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral, the company appears to have experienced unexpected damage at its rocket manufacturing facility in Merritt Island, Florida.
Photos posted to social media show a damaged roof to what is know as the 2CAT facility, a vertical building used for tank cleaning and testing on the rocket's second stages. It's a smaller building more toward the rear of the campus than the towering, 224-foot-tall building used to test the first stages, that can be seen for miles around the site...
It's one the many buildings at the site within Exploration Park adjacent to Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex where Blue Origin manufactures its New Glenn rocket. Jeff Bezos has invested more than $3 billion into the company's Space Coast facilities, which also manufacture the company's Blue Moon lunar landers.
The Sentinel reached out to Blue Origin for comment on the damage, but has not heard back.
The facility, though, is one where the company performs pressure testing on the rocket stage.
Any damage that may have been done to the facility or hardware inside it would not directly affect Blue Origin's rocket already at the company's launch facilities on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex 36.
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Historic Artemis II Moon Flight + New Glenn Test Explosion Explained | 25:13
NASASpaceflight | 1.47M subscribers | 24,226 views | April 11, 2026
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Odd the story doesn’t mention HOW the roof got damaged. No recent hurricanes.
BAD NEWS! B.O New Glenn GSE-2 Suffers Anomaly Explosion, Facility Blow Up While Lunar Lander...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKhQW3HbOIA
Seems like a lot of the interpretation of “damaged roof” will depend on “explosive force from within the building” (test failure of a pressurized tank inside) or “roof damaged from an outside pressure (wind) on the building.”
Maybe the same architect of the roof of Tropicana Field in Tampa.
There’s a photo online of the damage to the building viewed from overhead. Looks like strips of aluminum (?) paneling was torn from the flat roof frame. Looks like something might have been blown upward from inside the building to shear the panels. No other debris that I can see or tell.
“Odd the story doesn’t mention HOW the roof got damaged. No recent hurricanes.”
Article: “An apparent anomaly has occurred at Blue Origins 2CAT testing facility, damaging the roof in the process,”
Blue Origin: No comment
No, it doesn’t seem that way at all.
[Transcript from the NSF vid]
“Blue Origin New Glenn updates + test explosion
In the meantime, the flight-proven booster Never Tell Me the Odds is being prepared for its second flight as New Glenn takes to the skies for the third time no earlier than April 16th. This mission will carry the second of A Space Mobile’s next generation Bluebird Block 2 communication satellites into low Earth orbit and will mark the first time that New Glenn flies with a reused first stage. Blue’s also busy with hardware for missions further down the line and it appears that one of the stages might have caused some trouble. Blue was testing an upper stage in the two-cat or second stage cleaning and testing facility. Something clearly went wrong during the test as it blew a hole in the roof and damaged other parts of the building as well. It’s still a developing story as of recording, so we don’t know exactly what went down. But this isn’t the first time that something like this has happened. In August of 2024, the building’s door was blown off during a failed test, and it took them ages to repair it. Though damaged, the new door is still in place, so they might have opened it ahead of the test. Whatever happened, it’s not great news for Blue. Hopefully, it won’t set them back too far as they are trying to increase cadence with New Glenn. But we’ll keep you posted in a future video.”
JMO. Possibly wind shear…?
It’s strange that there isn’t more news about it, but of course, if a license plate blows off a Model Y, it’s top news all over the world. Bezos owns the Wash ComPost.
So that was the second time something of the sort has happened? Hope they can resolve what causes that and get back on schedule!
Musk has X! Maybe the sleuths on his team can get the skinny on it!
Bezos should just get out of the space business before he throws more good money after bad.... Blue Origin hasn’t advanced they way they should and Space X has outdone him by leaps and bounds.
As Elon likes to say: “Rapid Unplanned Disassembly”
Space X has lost rockets and wrecked its own launch pad once.
Even Virgin Galactic is trying to stay in the space tourism business.
Maybe Blue Origin doesn’t have the margin for errors that Space X can afford, but I don’t see this as something that would wash them out.
Competition is good. As long as it’s their money they want to spend, I’m happy to see all of them try.
A much better, much more clear story.
Thank you.
(SpaceX “enjoyed” a static pressure test “explosive release event” only few months ago. Jet Blue has had two now. For its many management failures, NASA/JPL and its subcontractors in the 2960s did not have (did not report) pressure test failures.)
bttt
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