When Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket erupted into a fireball on a Cape Canaveral launch pad on May 28, the fastest response came from his chief rival in space.
Elon Musk wrote on X: “Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard,” offering rare public solidarity between two billionaires who have spent a decade trading barbs over the industry.
Footage from Spaceflight Now showed Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploding during a hot-fire test, with fully fueled engines ignited while the vehicle remained bolted to the pad.
The blast was described as one of the largest rocket explosions in US history, with residents along Florida’s Space Coast reporting their homes shaking from the force of the detonation.
Blue Origin later warned that debris could wash ashore on local beaches, though no personnel were injured, and Launch Complex 36, the company’s only operational New Glenn pad, sustained heavy damage.
Bezos addressed the incident on X, writing: “All personnel are accounted for and safe. 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.”
Musk replied underneath with: “Ad astra per aspera,” the Latin phrase meaning through hardships to the stars.
The explosion was Blue Origin’s second New Glenn setback in roughly six weeks, following an April 19 upper-stage malfunction that failed to deliver AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite to a usable orbit.
The destroyed rocket had been scheduled to carry 48 satellites for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Leo, the broadband constellation Amazon is building to rival Starlink, and was the first of 24 launches Amazon had booked with Blue Origin.
Amazon’s FCC license requires it to deploy approximately 1,618 satellites by July 30, 2026, but with only around 230 in orbit, the company has already requested a two-year extension that analysts widely expect to be granted.
Amazon downplayed the impact, noting that New Glenn accounts for roughly 25% of its more than 100 booked launches, and that a United Launch Alliance Atlas V carried another Amazon Leo satellite batch to orbit the night after the explosion.
Blue Origin also holds a $3.4 billion NASA contract to build a crewed lunar lander, and on May 27 won a $188 million award as part of nearly $1 billion NASA split among four companies to deliver rovers to the moon.
While Blue Origin faces months of investigation, SpaceX is accelerating toward what could be the largest IPO in history, with Bloomberg reporting the company had set a floor valuation of at least $1.8 trillion following investor talks.
Musk pushed back on X, calling the report “false” and insisting SpaceX is still targeting a valuation above $2 trillion, though either figure would make its planned raise of up to $75 billion the largest IPO on record.
SpaceX is expected to debut on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, with a roadshow anticipated in early June following the reported valuation discussions.
The company’s financials present a mixed picture, with revenue rising to $18.7 billion in 2025 from around $14 billion, but a $4.94 billion net loss replacing the prior year’s profit.
Starlink, SpaceX’s connectivity division, generated $11.4 billion in 2025, representing roughly 61% of total revenue, though average revenue per user has declined three consecutive years, falling from $99 a month in 2023 to $66 by early 2026.
The AI segment, folded in through a February merger with xAI that included Grok and the X platform, lost more than $6 billion in 2025, representing the swing that pulled the entire company into the red.
The New Glenn explosion halted a broader space stock rally that had been building ahead of the SpaceX listing, with AST SpaceMobile falling as much as 18% intraday, Rocket Lab dropping more than 6%, and Planet Labs, Intuitive Machines, and Voyager Technologies each shedding more than 5%.
The lone exception was Virgin Galactic, which closed up roughly 40% following a VSS Unity glide flight on May 27 that marked its return to flight after a two-year pause and the reopening of ticket sales.
