A few days after a New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad, the damage left behind is coming to light, as Loren Grush writes at Bloomberg:
Photos of the blast’s aftermath reveal that the accident caused significant damage to the launchpad infrastructure in Cape Canaveral, Florida, destroying a key apparatus used to support and transport the rocket for flights and causing one of two lightning towers to collapse. Other hardware nearby also appeared considerably scorched. The explosion was so destructive that it generated seismic waves.
Rebuilding New Glenn’s sole operational launchpad will likely pose the biggest hurdle to resuming flights. While the company is building a launch site in California, the vast majority of the missions were slated to occur in Florida.
How long it will take to rebuild is anyone’s guess, but even with a billionaire owner, Blue Origin is going to need some time. The before and after photos are pretty rough.
That said, Blue Origin seems hopeful that things won’t be that bad, as Eric Berger reports:
Writing on the social media site X, Blue Origin’s Dave Limp said the company had been able to complete a preliminary survey of the LC-36A launch site.
“Now that we’ve had access to the pad and integration facility, we can share a bit of good news,” Limp said. “The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG tanks are all in good shape. This is good luck because these are very long lead items. The water tower is also good.”
Berger continues:
Limp also confirmed that the company would press ahead with a rebuild of the LC-36A site, which is designed for the 7×2 variant of the New Glenn rocket. One option had been to focus on building a larger pad next door, at LC-36B, capable of supporting the larger 9×4 variant of the rocket (the nine and four, respectively, refer to the number of engines in the first and second stage of the rocket).
Notably, Limp also said Blue Origin had a plan to replace the massive transporter-erector that moves the New Glenn rocket from its nearby integration hangar out to the launch pad. This was damaged beyond repair during the test failure on Thursday, May 28.