Tampa, United States - May 28, 2026 A dramatic video filmed from a backyard in Tampa, Florida, captured the distant explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket test on the night of May 28, 2026. The footage shows the dark horizon with trees and a house roof silhouetted in the foreground before a faint glow suddenly erupts into a massive fireball. The blast brightly illuminated the clouds and night sky in intense pink, orange, and yellow colors as the light expanded across the horizon and slowly faded. The video matched the original post text, which stated, “120 miles away. That's the distance between Tampa and the New Glenn explosion in this video. Yet the blast was still visible across Florida's night sky. Moments like this remind you just how powerful modern rockets are. Would you have guessed this was filmed that far away?” The explosion occurred around 8:59 p.m. ET during Blue Origin’s static fire test of the uncrewed New Glenn rocket at Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 320-foot rocket, which was being prepared for a mission carrying Amazon Project Kuiper satellites, experienced what the company described as a major anomaly, erupting into a fireball that shook homes along the Space Coast and briefly turned parts of Florida’s night sky orange. The incident also caused major damage at the launch pad, including a toppled lightning tower. No injuries were reported, and the satellites were not onboard at the time. The explosion marked a major setback for Jeff Bezos’ company and NASA’s Artemis program, which planned to use New Glenn for future lunar missions.
NASA and Blue Origin had high hopes that the company's towering rocket would be able to jump-start the agency's plans for a moon base in 2026. Then it exploded.
