2026年6月2日 / 美国东部时间下午3:15 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
尽管上周发生了严重的发射台爆炸事件，杰夫·贝佐斯旗下的火箭公司蓝色起源周二表示，损毁程度并未像最初担忧的那样严重，公司计划在今年年底前恢复新格伦火箭的发射。
蓝色起源首席执行官戴夫·林普在社交媒体平台X上发帖称，卡纳维拉尔角空军基地36号发射台的推进剂储罐在爆炸中完好无损，附近的处理机库也同样如此。主支撑塔架虽有损坏，但可以就地修复。
“现在我们已经进入发射台和整合设施，我们可以分享一些好消息了，”林普说道。“推进剂存储区、氧气、液氢和液化天然气[低温甲烷]储罐都状态良好。这是万幸，因为这些都是交付周期极长的设备。
“水塔也完好无损。大型支撑塔架受损，但可以就地修复，无需拆除更换。”
上周四在36号发射台爆炸的新格伦火箭以及用于将火箭转运至发射台表面并竖起到垂直状态的转运-竖起装置一同被毁。但林普表示，存放在发射台底部一座类似大型机库的“整合设施”中的另一台新格伦一级助推器和三台上面级“状态良好”。
“我们此前已经有一段时间一直在研究用替代的垂直火箭组装能力取代转运-竖起装置，现在我们将直接推进这一计划；因此我们不需要新的转运-竖起装置，”他说道。
目前尚无关于爆炸起因的消息，但林普在帖子末尾宣称：“我们将在今年年底前再次发射。Gradatim Ferociter。”这句蓝色起源的座右铭是拉丁语，意为“循序渐进，迅猛精进”。
蓝色起源原本计划在本月晚些时候发射第三枚新格伦火箭，将一批亚马逊Leo互联网卫星送入轨道。上周四，工程师们为一级发动机点火测试为两级加注了超低温液态甲烷和氧气，以验证火箭的飞行准备状态。当时Leo卫星并未搭载在火箭上。
这类“热试”在火箭行业属于相当常规的操作，工程师可以在火箭牢固固定在发射台上的情况下，测试发射日加注流程、助推器的推进系统以及关键的地面和飞行软件。
但上周四的情况绝非常规。
当新格伦的七台BE-4发动机开始点火并提升推力时，助推器底部爆发了火灾，片刻之后，火箭在巨大的火球中爆炸，爆炸产生的震动波及方圆数英里，整个佛罗里达半岛都能看到这场大火。
次日直升机拍摄的航拍画面显示，火箭和转运-竖起装置已被摧毁，主塔架底部至少有一些支撑梁被弯曲或炸飞，一座独立的避雷塔倒塌在成堆的 debris（此处保留原文术语，实际翻译为“残骸”）中。
与在佛罗里达州拥有两座运营发射台、在加利福尼亚州拥有一座的竞争对手SpaceX不同，蓝色起源仅拥有36号发射台。该公司此前已计划在卡纳维拉尔角建造第二座发射台，并在加利福尼亚州的范登堡太空军基地建造另一座。但在短期内，36号发射台修复完成之前，新格伦火箭无法进行飞行。
这对美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的阿尔忒弥斯登月计划以及该机构争取比中国率先实现月球表面载人着陆的目标而言，是一个难题。中国官方已表示，计划在本十年末前将本国“航天员”送上月球。
为了赢得这场自我宣告的“太空竞赛”，NASA正依赖SpaceX和蓝色起源两家公司，于明年将新型登月着陆器发射进入地球轨道，以便与阿尔忒弥斯任务搭乘猎户座飞船的宇航员进行交会对接测试。
如果这些测试进展顺利，NASA希望在2028年发射一次（可能两次）宇航员登月任务，此后每年进行两次飞行，随后开始在月球南极附近建造月球基地，宇航员可以在那里生活和工作数月之久。
蓝色起源的着陆器将为NASA提供除SpaceX星舰变体之外的另一种选择。SpaceX在完善其登月着陆器所需的超重型星舰火箭方面也遇到了自身的问题，目前尚不清楚该公司能否按计划在明年完成阿尔忒弥斯三号的地球轨道试飞。
蓝色起源的新格伦火箭还需要用于发射原型月球车和其他科学实验，这些载荷将搭乘上周爆炸事件两天前公布合同中的无人货运着陆器前往月球。
NASA局长贾里德·艾萨克曼对在2028年使用现有着陆器将阿尔忒弥斯宇航员送上月球仍持乐观态度。
“蓝色起源的领导层反应极其迅速，NASA将尽我们所能协助进行根本原因分析，并加快发射台的修复进度，同时始终专注于推进着陆器项目，”他在X平台上说道。
肯尼迪航天中心主任布莱恩·休斯于上个月刚上任，他周二告诉佛罗里达太空局董事会，NASA正在“加倍投入登月着陆器项目”。
“我们将与蓝色起源和其他月球着陆器技术团队合作，所有这些工作都是为了让我们按计划推进，实现总统的目标，即在2028年底前让美国人重新踏上月球，”他说道。“再说一次，这不仅仅是为了宣传，这是展示我们国家实力的重要契机。”
林普承诺年底前恢复飞行，这或许意味着爆炸的“根本原因”并非需要数月时间才能纠正和测试的发动机问题。或者至少，不是重大的设计缺陷。
这对波音和洛克希德·马丁的合资企业联合发射联盟（ULA）而言是个好消息。ULA在其新型火神火箭的一级助推器中使用了蓝色起源的BE-4发动机。旷日持久的发动机故障调查将对ULA造成挫折，但目前尚未将BE-4发动机归咎于新格伦的这次事故。
Blue Origin vows to resume New Glenn launches before end of year in wake of massive explosion
June 2, 2026 / 3:15 PM EDT / CBS News
Despite a spectacular launch pad explosion last week, Jeff Bezos’s rocket company Blue Origin said Tuesday the damage was not as severe as initially feared and that the company plans to resume New Glenn rocket launches by the end of the year.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, in a post on the social media platform X, said propellant tanks at launch pad 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station made it through the blast in good shape, as did a nearby processing hangar. The main support gantry, while damaged, can be repaired in place.
“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 [cryogenic methane] tanks are all in good shape. This is good luck because these are very long lead items.
“The water tower is also good. The big support tower is damaged, but it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced.”
An aerial view of launch complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station showing the aftermath of the New Glenn explosion last Thursday. Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
The New Glenn rocket that blew up on pad 36 last Thursday was destroyed along with its transporter-erector, used to move the rocket to the pad surface and then rotate it to vertical. But Limp said another New Glenn first stage booster and three upper stages housed in a large hangar-like “integration facility” at the base of the pad “look good.”
“We had already been working for some time on eliminating our transporter-erector in favor of an alternative vertical (rocket assembly capability), and we’ll now go directly to that; so we don’t need a new transporter-erector,” he said.
There’s been no word yet on what might have caused the explosion, but Limp closed his post by declaring: “We will fly again before the end of this year. Gradatim Ferociter.” The Latin expression, Blue Origin’s motto, means “step by step, ferociously.”
A view of the New Glenn rocket in the ready for launch configuration. Blue Origin
Blue Origin was preparing to launch its third New Glenn later this month to put a batch of Amazon Leo internet satellites into orbit. Last Thursday, engineers loaded both stages with supercold liquid methane and oxygen for a first stage engine test firing to verify its readiness for flight. The Leo satellites were not aboard.
Such “hot-fire” tests are fairly routine in the rocket industry, giving engineers a chance to test launch-day fueling procedures, a booster’s propulsion system and critical ground and flight software while the rocket remains securely bolted to its launch pad.
But it was far from routine last Thursday.
As the New Glenn’s seven BE-4 engines began igniting and throttling up, a fire broke out at the base of the booster and moments later, the rocket exploded in a tremendous fireball, shaking the ground for miles around in a conflagration visible all the way across the Florida peninsula.
The New Glenn explosion was the first such launch pad mishap since a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blew up on nearby pad 40 just minutes before a planned first stage engine firing, or “hot-fire” test. Spaceflight Now
Footage captured by photo journalists from a helicopter the next day showed the rocket and its transporter-erector had been destroyed, at least some support beams at the base of the main gantry were either bent or blown away and a separate lightning tower had collapsed in a tangle of debris.
Unlike rival SpaceX, which has two operation pads in Florida and one in California, Blue Origin only has pad 36. The company already had plans to build a second pad at the Cape and another at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. But in the near term, New Glenns cannot fly until pad 36 is repaired.
That’s a problem for NASA’s Artemis moon program and the agency’s drive to beat the Chinese to the lunar surface. Chinese officials have said they plan to land their own “taikonauts” on the moon by the end of the decade.
To win this self-declared “space race,” NASA is relying on both SpaceX and Blue Origin to launch new moon landers into Earth orbit next yet for rendezvous and docking tests with Artemis astronauts in an Orion capsule.
An artist’s impression of Blue Origin’s lunar lander on ghe moon’s surface. Blue Origin/NASA
If those tests go well, NASA hopes to launch one, and possibly two, astronaut moon landing missions in 2028, soon followed by two flights per year thereafter before beginning assembly of a moon base near the lunar south pole where astronauts can live and work for months at a time.
Blue Origin’s lander would give NASA an alternative to SpaceX’s, a variant of the company’s Starship rocket. SpaceX has had its own problems perfecting the Super Heavy-Starship rocket needed to launch its lander, and it’s not yet clear if they will be ready for the Artemis III Earth-orbit test flight next year as currently planned.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn also is needed to launch prototype rovers and other science experiments to the moon aboard an unpiloted cargo lander under contracts announced two days before last week’s explosion.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman remains optimistic about landing Artemis astronauts on the moon in 2028 using whatever landing craft is available.
“Blue Origin leadership has responded incredibly quickly, and NASA will do all we can to help with root cause analysis and accelerate pad recovery timeframes while staying extremely focused on progressing the lander,” he said on X.
Kennedy Space Center Director Brian Hughes, appointed to the post just last month, told the Space Florida board of directors Tuesday that NASA is “doubling down on the lunar lander.”
“We’ll be working with Blue and X lunar lander technology, and all of that is designed to keep us on path, meet the President’s goal, which is to have American boots back on the moon before the end of 2028,” he said. “Again, that’s not just something to tout, it’s an important demonstration of our nation’s abilities.”
Limp’s promise to resume flights by the end of the year might imply the “root cause” of the explosion was not an engine problem that would take months to correct and then test. Or at least, not a major design flaw.
That would be good news for United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. ULA uses Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines in the first stage of its new Vulcan rocket. A drawn-out engine failure investigation would be a setback for ULA, but the BE-4s have not yet been blamed for the New Glenn mishap.
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