A routine test conducted on May 28 resulted in the explosion of the giant New Glenn rocket, an event attributed to an oxygen valve in one of the BE-4 engines. Blue Origin confirmed this finding after conducting detailed analyses of the damaged equipment.
The incident occurred at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The detonation not only destroyed the rocket but also affected some structures located in the launch area.
The investigation conducted by Blue Origin indicated that the failure originated in the main oxygen valve of one of the seven BE-4 engines installed on the first stage of the New Glenn. This anomaly was later validated through the recovery and subsequent inspection of the hardware.
Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, communicated that the conclusion about the problem was reached after recovering the parts and conducting meticulous inspections. To better understand the nature of the defect, the company conducted tests on components and engines.
The planned modifications to correct the issue involve adjustments to the component. The New Glenn, which is 98 meters tall, is one of the largest rockets developed by Blue Origin, and its first stage was designed to support a minimum of 25 launches, being reusable.
This rocket will play a crucial role in NASA's Artemis program. Blue Origin plans to use it to transport the Blue Moon lunar module, selected by the space agency for future crewed missions to the Moon.
Before moving on to crewed flights, the company aims to test the Mark 1 prototype in an uncrewed mission by the end of the current year. The primary objective of this phase is to evaluate the complete performance of the equipment.
The New Glenn debuted in January 2025, returned to flights in November of the same year, and again on April 19 of this year. In the most recent flight, the rocket failed to place the BlueBird 7 satellite, belonging to AST SpaceMobile, into the intended orbit, resulting in the loss of the payload.
Despite the setbacks, Dave Limp assured that the resolution is underway and that the necessary changes will be minor. He stated: 'The path forward is clear. We are making small modifications to the valve that can be quickly installed on the current engines.'
Blue Origin notified that the new components should be ready by the end of August. Meanwhile, the team continues to analyze all collected data to finalize the investigation and prepare for the next phase of New Glenn testing.
Observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope have provided new data on how the first stars and galaxies emerged. Scientists investigated the dwarf galaxy Sextans A to understand how the Universe began to accumulate heavy element-rich dust in its early phases.
This study was conducted due to the limitations of current instruments in deeply analyzing the oldest galaxies in the cosmos. As a solution, the team directed its investigation toward a system located approximately 4.6 million light-years from Earth, whose chemical composition resembles that of the first galaxies.
The findings point out which stars were most responsible for creating cosmic dust, material that later drove the birth of new stars and galactic evolution. The research was published on Monday, the 20th, in the journal The Astrophysical Journal.
Despite the James Webb's ability to capture very distant galaxies, the detailed analysis of these objects remains a challenge. To overcome this difficulty, researchers opted to study Sextans A, a dwarf galaxy that shares chemical similarities with systems existing in the first billion years of the Universe.
According to the responsible group, this environment provides a unique opportunity to study the phenomena that occurred when the first stars began to alter the composition of the space between them. Claudio Gavetti, lead researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), stated that observing a nearby galaxy like Sextans A, with similar chemical conditions, is a valuable opportunity to understand the evolution of the first generations of stars and their role in transforming the interstellar medium.
At the beginning of the Universe's history, hydrogen and helium predominated, while heavier elements were rare. The first stars generated these elements in their cores and, upon exploding as supernovae at the end of their lives, dispersed this material into the interstellar medium. Later, this raw material was incorporated into new stellar generations.
Researchers noted that Sextans A has a concentration of heavy elements corresponding to only 1% to 7% of what is found in the Sun. This characteristic makes the galaxy a natural laboratory for simulating the conditions of the young Universe.
To conduct the work, the team employed the NIRCam and MIRI instruments, both present on the James Webb. The observations allowed mapping stars in the galaxy that transit through the phase known as the red giant branch, a period characterized by large increases in brightness and structural modifications.
The analysis revealed that about 90% of these stars were not enveloped in dust. In contrast, approximately twenty of them exhibited dense layers of this material, indicating that they functioned as important producers of cosmic dust. The study indicates that these stars formed between 2 and 3 billion years ago and had an initial mass equivalent to about one and a half times that of the Sun.
The authors concluded that identifying these objects deepens the understanding of which types of stars helped enrich the Universe with the essential elements for the emergence of new stars and the development of galaxies over time. Flavia Dell’Agli, a researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), emphasized that the JWST allows observation of environments with unprecedented detail, the value of which lies not only in the images but also in the comparison with theoretical models to validate the description of stellar evolution.
