A massive fireball painted the sky over Florida orange as an uncrewed Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on the launchpad during an engine-firing test on Thursday ahead of a satellite launch planned for next week.

The setback came as Bezos' Blue Origin is going head-to-head with Musk's SpaceX to design the lunar landers NASA will use to return people to the moon. Musk responded to footage of the explosion on X, writing: "Rockets are hard."