One of Blue Origin's BE-4 rocket engines exploded seconds into a test at the end of June, a "destructive setback" for Jeff Bezos' space company, according to CNBC.
The incident occurred on June 30 at Blue Origin's West Texas testing facility. On the condition of anonymity, CNBC spoke with people who watched the testing video and described a "dramatic explosion that destroyed the engine and heavily damaged the test stand infrastructure."
The BE-4 engine that exploded was undergoing testing and was originally scheduled to be completed by the end of this month. Those people said the engine was destined to ship to Blue Origin's customer United Launch Alliance to power the Vulcan Centaur. The engines are also used to power Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.
BE-4 Engine
On Tuesday, Blue Origin confirmed to CNBC that it "ran into an issue while testing Vulcan's Flight Engine 3."
"No personnel were injured and we are currently assessing root cause," the company said. "We already have proximate cause and are working on remedial actions."
No footage of the incident was released. Here's a 2019 test of a BE-4 rocket.
The company also said it would "continue testing" engines in West Texas and "Would be able to meet our engine delivery commitments this year and stay ahead of our customer's launch needs."
However, CNBC noted, "BE-4′s test failure threatens to further push back the already-delayed first Vulcan launch."
ULA is a space rocket venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which competes with Elon Musk's SpaceX. Any delays to ULA launches could be beneficial to SpaceX.
Earlier this year, SpaceX was granted a rocket pad at a military base in Southern California, positioning itself to compete for Pentagon contracts to launch spy satellites.
