Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket engine explodes during testing

A Blue Origin rocket engine exploded during testing last month, CNBC has learned, a destructive setback with potential ramifications for the company’s customers as well as its own rocket.

During a firing on June 30 at a West Texas facility of Jeff Bezos’ space company, a BE-4 engine detonated about 10 seconds into the test, according to several people familiar with the matter. Those people described having seen video of a dramatic explosion that destroyed the engine and heavily damaged the test stand infrastructure.

The people spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters.

The engine that exploded was expected to finish testing in July. It was then scheduled to ship to Blue Origin’s customer United Launch Alliance for use on ULA’s second Vulcan rocket launch, those people said.

A Blue Origin spokesperson, in a statement to CNBC on Tuesday, confirmed that the company “ran into an issue while testing Vulcan’s Flight Engine 3.”

“No personnel were injured, and we are currently assessing root cause,” Blue Origin said, adding that “we already have proximate cause and are working on remedial actions.”

The company noted that it “immediately” made its customer ULA aware of the incident. ULA is the rocket-building joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which competes primarily with Elon Musk’s SpaceX – especially going head-to-head over the most lucrative military launch contracts.

Blue Origin also said it will be able to “continue testing” engines in West Texas. The company previously built two stands for the tests.

“We will be able to meet our engine delivery commitments this year and stay ahead of our customer’s launch needs,” Blue Origin added.

BE-4’s test failure threatens to further push back the already delayed first Vulcan launch – which…