The fate of Nasa’s delayed Moon landing now hangs in the balance after a catastrophic failure of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket during yesterday’s test flight. The uncrewed launch from Cape Canaveral ended with the vehicle breaking apart less than three minutes into its ascent, scattering debris across the Atlantic. For working-class families in Britain’s aerospace heartlands – from Stevenage to Filton – this is not just a story of billionaires’ expensive toys.
It is a direct threat to hundreds of skilled, unionised jobs that have been promised under the UK’s share of the Artemis programme. The UK Space Agency confirmed this morning that it is “urgently assessing” the implications for British-built components, including the critical service module for the Orion spacecraft, which relies on Blue Origin’s delivery timeline. The failure could push back the first crewed lunar landing, already scheduled no earlier than 2026, by months or even years.
“This is devastating for the workforce,” said a senior engineer at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, who asked not to be named. “We’ve been told to expect a major contract next year. Now we’re in limbo.
People have mortgages, kids. This isn’t a game.” The rocket, designed to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, was a cornerstone of Blue Origin’s $3.
4bn Nasa contract for the Human Landing System. The explosion – witnessed by thousands watching a livestream – occurred during a routine staging manoeuvre. Early telemetry suggests a malfunction in the second-stage liquid hydrogen engine, a technology with a history of teething problems.
Blue Origin has not yet commented. For the UK Space Agency, which invested £340m in the Artemis programme through its European Space Agency subscription, the timing could not be worse. The government’s space strategy, unveiled last summer, pledged to grow the sector’s workforce to 100,000 by 2030.
That goal now looks threadbare. “The Treasury will be less keen to sign off big space budgets when the flagship project is burning up,” said a former official. Meanwhile, union leaders are calling for an emergency summit.
“Our members are not gamblers,” said Sue Ferns, senior deputy general secretary of Prospect. “They are scientists and engineers. This failure is a reminder that the sector needs proper public oversight, not just private venture capital.
” In the pubs and working men’s clubs of the North West, where apprentices train to machine titanium for satellite components, the mood is grim. The failure is a blow to national pride as much as to pay packets. And for the millions of Britons struggling with energy bills and train strikes, it is yet another sign that the promises of a high-tech, high-wage future ring hollow.
The next launch window for Artemis 3, the landing mission, was already tight. Now it may slip beyond 2027. For the shelf stackers and call centre workers who never asked to go to the Moon, the question remains: who pays when a billionaire’s rocket goes up in flames?
