Incredible videos show Blue Origin rocket explosion could be seen from hundreds of miles away

An explosion on Florida's Space Coast last night lit up the sky more than 100 miles away. During a test of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket in the evening hours on May 28, ahead of an upcoming mission to deliver a batch of Amazon Leo internet satellites to low Earth orbit , the launch vehicle experienced an anomaly that led to its complete loss and what is likely significant damage to the Launch Complex-36 (LC-36), at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos confirmed in a post on X that no one was hurt in the accident, and said, "It's too early to know the root cause but we're already working to find it. Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It's worth it." Dozens of other posts to social media quickly spread views of the explosion seen from nearby Cocoa Beach all the way to Tampa, on Florida's west coast. A flyover image taken this morning (May 29) of LC-36 gives an idea to the extent of damage sustained by the launchpad infrastructure. One X user, @leesteapleton , posted a video sent to him by a patron of Cocoa Beach restaurant Coconuts on the Beach, located about 11.5 miles (18.5 kilometers) from the launchpad. Farther north near Jetty Park, a popular launch viewing location in Port Canaveral about 5.5 miles (8.9 kilometers) from LC-36, X user @JConcilus called the explosion " absolutely enormous. " The incident was also captured in nearby waters off the shore. …