Blue Origin rocket explodes: What does it mean for future NASA missions?

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Florida sky blazed orange as Blue Origin's 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket blew up on its launch pad during a test run Thursday evening.

Space Force officials are now warning Florida residents that dangerous debris could wash ashore in the coming weeks and months.

RELATED: Blue Origin rocket explodes during test at Cape Canaveral

"The first thought that came to my mind was, 'Uh oh, this looks bad for future plans,'" said Texas Southern University Astrophysicist Dr. Victor Migenes.

Blue Origin has multiple contracts with NASA for the Artemis mission to get astronauts to the Moon and eventually build a base there.

"Okay, that blew up, that's not good, that will put some delays in the program. But if we fix it now, then we won't have humans paying the price for poor technology, bad technology, or just simply accidents that happen," explained Dr. Migenes.

NASA just announced this week that Blue Origin, founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, would be sending an uncrewed rocket to the moon later this year as part of a NASA partnership.

Bezos posted on X that the company will "rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying."

NASA's administrator posted on X that the agency would "provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and moon base programs as it becomes available."

"These things are really, really heavy. They're carrying these huge structures that move very slowly to minimize vibrations and many other things," Migenes said. "Any little thing, a welding, a cable, something could have broken or stopped working, or with the temperature, perhaps burn out. All engineering and all science progress on the same footing: trial and error."