PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) – Reconstruction has begun at Blue Origin’s Florida launch pad after a New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test in May, CEO Dave Limp said on Wednesday, with launches expected to resume before the end of this year.
• Limp was speaking alongside Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at the VivaTech conference in Paris.
• An uncrewed New Glenn rocket exploded on May 28 during an engine-firing test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
• No injuries were reported.
• “It was a gut punch for the whole team. But what we’ve learned since then is we got really lucky,” Bezos said.
• Some of the “long lead items” on the launch infrastructure, including the propellant tank farm, liquid hydrogen, liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen, were preserved, he added.
• Earlier this month, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told CNBC that damage to New Glenn will take some “serious time” to repair.
• Limp said Blue Origin had brought in crews working around the clock to clear debris from the pad, and that reconstruction began on Tuesday.
• He also said Blue Origin’s uncrewed Mark 1 lunar lander mission is expected to fly early next year.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling and Gianluca Lo Nostro. Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Mark Potter)
