Blue Origin still doesn’t know why its New Glenn rocket blew up last month

Blue Origin wants to return the rocket to flight as quickly as it can because the company has become one of the central players in NASA’s push to return humans to the moon before President Trump leaves office.

To do so, Blue Origin will not only need to determine and fix what caused the explosion last month, it will need to rebuild the company’s launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as it is currently the company’s only launch pad that can support the massive rocket.

In his post, Limp praised Blue Origin’s employees for making quick progress on this front.

The company lost a lightning tower in the explosion, as well as the large piece of equipment that moves New Glenn to the launchpad and stands it up (known as the transporter-erector). Nearby buildings on the site were damaged in the blast, too. Still, Limp wrote that the company “caught a lot of breaks, too, and intend to make the most of them.”

Some of those breaks include the fact that the on-site water tower, gas tanks, and rocket integration facility are “in good shape.”

Limp shared more details about how Blue Origin will change its current launch complex in Cape Canaveral. The company is doing away with the transporter-erector idea, and will instead use a massive crane to stand New Glenn up on the launch pad before flights.

Besides allowing Blue Origin to return to flight sooner than expected, this approach would increase New Glenn’s flight cadence, according to Limp. Blue Origin was planning as many as 12 launches this year before the May explosion.