Il Nuovo Postiglione - Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin rocket explodes on launch pad

Footage shows the towering rocket erupt in an inferno, followed by a mushroom cloud of smoke as bystanders gathered to watch the launch gasp "Oh no!" and "Oh my God!"

Bezos's space company Blue Origin said in a brief statement posted to X that it had experienced an "anomaly" during the test in Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida, and that "all personnel have been accounted for."

The explosion is the latest setback to the Amazon boss's position in the frenzied race between private companies pushing for space exploration.

"It's too early to know the root cause but we're already working to find it," Bezos wrote on X.

"Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It's worth it."

The New Glenn rocket, which stands at 98 meters (321 feet), is at the heart of Blue Origin's space ambitions, particularly in its battle against Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is currently developing the biggest rocket in history, Starship.

Musk offered his condolences, calling the accident "most unfortunate."

The disaster comes weeks after the New Glenn rocket failed a mission to deliver a communications satellite into the correct orbit, prompting an investigation.

Although the company successfully reused and recovered a booster for the rocket, the uncrewed mission did not deliver the satellite from the company AST SpaceMobile.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in response that it required Blue Origin to conduct a "mishap investigation," which was completed earlier this month.

"The FAA has approved our NG-3 report, and corrective measures have been implemented," Blue Origin said last week, explaining that thermal conditions caused one of the rocket's engines to not achieve its full thrust, causing it to miss its target orbit.

- 'Spaceflight is unforgiving' -

Florida Congressman Mike Haridopolos, whose district includes Cape Canaveral, said in a statement on X that he has been in contact with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman regarding the explosion.

"I am grateful there were no reported injuries and thankful for the first responders, engineers, and launch crews who acted quickly," Haridopolos said.

NASA and Blue Origin had been working together to develop a lunar lander for its Artemis lunar missions.

Isaacman, for his part, said NASA was aware of the explosion.

"Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult," he wrote on X.

"We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets."

NASA is aiming to test an in-orbit rendezvous between spacecraft and one or two lunar landers in 2027, and carry out a crewed lunar landing before the end of 2028.

But a lot needs to happen before then -- and industry experts have voiced repeated skepticism that Blue Origin and SpaceX can achieve benchmarks in time.

M.Vacanti--INP