Blue Origin blames New Glenn fireball on engine oxygen valve

Blue Origin has identified the engine component at the center of May's spectacular New Glenn pad explosion, which left the Jeff Bezos space tentacle facing a substantial rebuild. "The anomaly originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines, which was later confirmed by hardware recovery and inspections," CEO Dave Limp posted. Limp did not explain the valve's failure mode or explain how the anomaly led to the explosion. New Glenn, whose first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines, was on the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex 36 for a preflight hotfire test in May when it suddenly exploded. The blast destroyed the rocket and key ground equipment. Blue Origin has since been rebuilding the facility at a breakneck pace. In June, Limp said the company still planned to launch in 2026 and later explained that the replacement pad would support a revised integration process. The stages will be assembled horizontally and rolled out before the payload is mated with New Glenn in the vertical position. Limp said extensive component-level and engine hotfire tests had been conducted "to understand the failure mode better and inform mitigations." "The path forward is clear," he wrote. "We're making small modifications to the valve that can be quickly retrofitted to existing engines. We're manufacturing the updated hardware, which will be ready by the end of this month." Blue Origin is not the only BE-4 customer. United Launch Alliance (ULA) uses two of the engines on Vulcan's first stage. Vulcan is already sidelined from US Space Force missions following an unrelated anomaly in a Northrop Grumman solid rocket booster during its last launch in February. The payload reached orbit, but the Space Force wants the problem resolved before Vulcan flies for it again. ULA did not immediately respond when asked whether its stock of BE-4 engines would require the same valve modifications. ®