GoKawiilFire during an explosion of the uncrewed Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket during a test on a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., May 28, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Monday told CNBC that it will "take some serious time" to restore the launchpad damaged last week by a Blue Origin rocket explosion.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin was conducting a hot-fire test of its massive New Glenn rocket on Thursday at a Space Force launch facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when the rocket erupted into a fireball. Bezos confirmed that all Blue Origin personnel were safe following the incident, and pledged to rebuild, while calling it a "very rough day."
A 2028 timeframe is "within the realm" of a possible launchpad recovery, Isaacman said in an interview with CNBC's Morgan Brennan at the CEO Council Summit.
"We're all getting organized generally around the idea that we certainly want to see Blue Origin be very successful," Isaacman said. "So recovering, getting the pad recovered, providing subject matter expertise, root cause analysis for sure. Let's figure out what's broken, and then we got to keep moving forward."
Isaacman, Bezos and Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp toured the launchpad and addressed the space startup's employees on Friday. Limp wrote in a Saturday post on X that Blue Origin has since regained some access to launchpad and developed a plan for rebuilding.
NASA has several contracts with Blue Origin as part of the space agency's Artemis program, an effort to return American astronauts to the Moon's surface by 2028. It tapped Blue Origin to launch an uncrewed Blue Moon lander, known as MK1, atop New Glenn later this year.
Getting the lander to the moon will require a rocket that can carry a significant amount of mass, Isaacman said. That will likely put NASA in "Falcon Heavy land," he said, referring to the super heavy-lift rocket developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
"In terms of heavy lift, you know, real heavy lift, you've got SpaceX and Blue Origin, and obviously one of them is down a pad right now," Isaacman said.
New Glenn was designed by Blue Origin to compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, along with United Launch Alliance's Vulcan heavy-lift rocket.
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