Bad News For Bezos

OOPS !

source:    https://x.com/NASASpaceflight/status/2060164928472854821

the Ars Technica article:

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-just-exploded-during-a-static-fire-test/

The New Glenn rocket uses methane and oxygen - methane is dangerous stuff.  I remember watching a NOVA program in one of the early seasons about hydrogen.  The show mentioned this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_East_Ohio_Gas_explosion

Natural gas (mostly methane) is clear/odorless/heavy so it can creep along the ground and mix with oxygen to form an explosive mixture that just needs an ignition source.  This is at least partially why those open flames are seen in oil fields.  If the methane can't be captured it must be burned or eventually everything goes blooey.  Every heating season there are news stories about houses blowing up or burning - usually the family is away and natural gas is the cause.  Methane is dangerous !

That NOVA program pointed out that hydrogen has it's own explosive problems too but that actually it's not as bad as methane - remember that people on the Hindenburg survived the explosion in NJ:

source: By Sam Shere - Zeppelin-ramp de Hindenburg / Hindenburg zeppelin disasterBetter photo (JPEG Image, 1404 × 1080 pixels), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19329337

Blue Origin has largely avoided these kinds of blowups, now they'll have to find out what happened and rebuild what needs rebuilding - but that's gonna take time.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm