Mission Systems Requirements & Verification Engineer

Blue Origin rocket explosion was roughly as powerful as Chernobyl blast, sent sound waves 1,000 miles across the US. Harry Baker Fri, September 4, 2026 at 12:27 PM PDT When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. When Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket suddenly blew apart on a Florida launchpad earlier this year, it sent sound waves racing more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) across the U.S., new data reveals. While imperceptible to human ears, the subtle vibrations have helped researchers analyze the blast in surprising detail. New Glenn is the largest and most powerful of Blue Origin's commercial rockets. It stands at 320 feet (98 meters) tall, roughly the same size as NASA's Space Launch System (most recently used during the Artemis II mission), and is designed to compete with SpaceX's supersized Starship rockets. New Glenn has launched into space three times: first in January 2025; then again in November 2025, when it launched a pair of NASA spacecraft to Mars; and finally in April this year, when it reached space but failed to deploy a giant communication satellite. During the second launch, Blue Origin successfully landed the rocket's reusable booster on Earth, making it the second company to achieve this feat, after SpaceX. But on May 29, during a static "hotfire test" at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, shortly before New Glenn's planned fourth launch, the rocket's booster violently exploded without warning. The blast shot bits of flaming debris into the air and unleashed a massive mushroom cloud that briefly lit up the night sky. On Aug. 5, Blue Origin revealed that a faulty oxygen valve likely caused the explosion, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com. (The company has not attempted to launch another New Glenn rocket since.) The fiery failure is believed to be one of the most powerful prelaunch explosions ever seen. The damage caused to the launchpad alone could take at least a year to fix, according to Ars Technica. This not only affects Blue Origin's ability to launch rockets but could also delay NASA's proposed moon base, which will rely on New Glenn to launch some of its components. Nobody was hurt by the explosion. But thousands of locals reported hearing a thunderous boom as they were hit with the resulting shockwave, which reached up to 135 miles (217 kilometers) from the launchpad, Florida Today previously reported. However, in terms of the sound produced by this event, this was just the tip of the iceberg. In a new study, published Aug. 12 in the journal The Seismic Record, researchers analyzed data from special listening stations across the U.S. for signs of infrasound - ultra-low-frequency sound below the range of human hearing - that coincided with the blast. At least 36 stations picked up infrasound signals from the explosion, the farthest of which was located in northeast Texas, about 1,046 miles (1,684 km) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Detecting such distant low-frequency sound waves not only highlights the scale of the blast but also provided researchers with "a very rare opportunity to study [the] large real-world energetic event" in more detail, study first author Elizabeth Silber, a physicist and planetary scientist at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, wrote in a statement. Based on the frequency and travel distance of the sound waves, the researchers estimated that the explosion had the equivalent power of 0.131 kilotons (144 U.S. tons) of TNT, which is slightly higher than the initial blast that destroyed the nuclear reactor at Chornobyl in 1986, according to a 2009 study. The team also worked out how much of the rocket's fuel was consumed in the initial explosion. Although the exact amount of fuel in the booster is unknown, they estimate that between 3% and 6% of the rocket's cryogenic propellant was used up in the initial blast. This may seem low, especially considering the size of the fireball, but it lies within the expected range, researchers said. "In a large propellant accident, the fuel and oxidizer do not necessarily mix and react all at once," Silber said. "Some material can contribute to the initial blast, while other material can burn more gradually in the fireball and the plume." The researchers believe that infrasound is an underutilized and potentially valuable tool for tracking spacecraft accidents or other large explosions across the globe. The same team has also previously used the low-frequency sound waves to track meteors and spacecraft as they enter Earth's atmosphere, including the return capsule of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission in 2023.

NASA awards Blue Origin up to $700 million for Mars communications network. NASA has selected Blue Origin to build and operate a telecommunications network around Mars, awarding the company a contract worth up to approximately $700 million for infrastructure intended to relay communications and navigation data for future missions. The first network spacecraft is due by the end of 2028. Under the firm-fixed-price contract, Blue Origin will design, develop, integrate, launch and operate a high-performance telecommunications orbiter, according to NASA's September 1 contract announcement. The agency expects the network to be operational at Mars by 2030. The orbiter is intended to relay science data, imagery, navigation information and mission communications for spacecraft on and around Mars. NASA says the purpose-built system will provide greater communications capacity, reliability and operational flexibility as the number and data requirements of Mars missions grow. The contract also extends NASA's shift toward commercially operated communications infrastructure beyond Earth. NASA sought industry proposals for the Mars Telecommunications Network in May, describing it as part of its Space Communications and Navigation program's architecture for extending network services from Earth to the Moon and Mars. Blue Origin will operate the Mars network as part of that broader infrastructure rather than simply deliver a spacecraft to NASA. The Mars system is also part of NASA's developing approach to an interplanetary network based on Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking, or DTN. NASA describes DTN as a standardized store-and-forward protocol architecture designed for networks where long delays and intermittent links make conventional terrestrial Internet protocols inadequate. NASA says DTN became operational across its Near Space Network and Deep Space Network following completion of an agency-wide project in January 2026. NASA specifically describes the planned 2030 Mars relay as DTN-enabled. Its current communications architecture calls DTN a foundation for a "Solar System Internet," with the Mars network following deployment of interoperable networking around the Moon. Standardized DTN can allow spacecraft and ground stations belonging to different agencies or commercial providers to exchange data, while its store-and-forward design preserves traffic when the next communications link is temporarily unavailable. That makes interoperability and resilience consequential features of the commercial model. NASA's earlier Mars relay planning identified addressable data transfers, provider custody of data and autonomous routing among available network nodes as potential DTN capabilities. The resulting infrastructure is intended not merely as a faster radio link to Earth, but as a network capable of routing communications among multiple missions and providers despite the delays and disruptions inherent in interplanetary communications. NORDVPN DISCOUNT - CircleID x NordVPN Get NordVPN [74% +3 extra months, from $2.99/month] - CircleID's internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact Caida.

NASA selects Blue Origin as Mars telecommunications network provider. Sep 2, 2026 NASA awarded Blue Origin a contract Tuesday to develop the agency's Mars Telecommunications Network, a next-generation communications system that will enable reliable, high-bandwidth communications and navigation services for current and future Mars missions. The firm-fixed-price contract has a maximum potential value of approximately $700 million to deliver a high-performance Mars telecommunications orbiter to NASA no later than Dec. 31, 2028. Blue Origin will design, develop, integrate, launch, and operate the network as a part of the agency's broader space communications and navigation infrastructure. The architecture will consist of a high-performance telecommunications spacecraft orbiting Mars, transmitting science data, imagery, navigation information, and critical mission communications for spacecraft operating on and around the planet. The award marks a milestone in NASA's strategy to expand communications and navigation services beyond Earth and the Moon, establishing the foundation for sustained exploration of Mars in the coming decades. Under the Artemis program, NASA is sending astronauts to explore the Moon and prepare for missions to Mars. Robotic missions will pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and as these missions expand, demand for data will continue to increase. To meet this need, NASA is pursuing a purpose-built network capable of supporting a growing number of missions while providing greater capacity, reliability, and operational flexibility. The selection follows NASA's request for proposal issued in May. As the agency increasingly taps commercial partners for transportation and communications services in Earth orbit and to develop the Moon Base, the Mars Telecommunications Network initiative similarly seeks to harness private-sector capabilities while enabling NASA to focus on exploration and scientific discovery. The network, managed by NASA's Space Communications and Navigation program, is expected to be operational at Mars by 2030 and will support both current and future missions to the Red Planet, as NASA ventures deeper into space.