Sandia reads the New Glenn test explosion off infrasound stations 1,700 kilometres away
Sandia National Laboratories researchers matched time-stamped video of the May 2026 New Glenn static fire explosion at Cape Canaveral with infrasound recorded at 36 broadband microbarometer stations, the farthest about 1,700 kilometres from the pad. Back-projection independently confirmed the time and place of the blast and put its yield at 0.131 kilotons of TNT equivalent. Elizabeth Silber and Logan Scamfer report the analysis in The Seismic Record.
Science··Evening
Infrasound from 36 stations fixed the time and place of the blast
Elizabeth Silber and Logan Scamfer of Sandia National Laboratories compared time-stamped video of the New Glenn static fire explosion at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36 in May 2026 with infrasound recorded across a network of broadband microbarometers. Some of the 36 regional stations that caught the wave sat about 1,700 kilometres from the pad. Back-projection across those stations independently confirmed the time and place of the blast. The low-frequency waves that spread from Blue Origin's vehicle fall below the range of human hearing.[1], [2]
The blast came out at 0.131 kilotons of TNT equivalent
The infrasound analysis put the yield of the explosion at 0.131 kilotons of TNT equivalent. How much propellant was aboard is not publicly known, so the researchers set that yield against a plausible estimate of the onboard chemical energy reserves. Under a full-fill scenario about 3–4 per cent of the available chemical energy went into the rapid pressure wave, or about 6 per cent if the reservoirs were only half full. Elizabeth Silber said that in a large propellant accident the fuel and oxidiser do not necessarily mix and react all at once, with some material contributing to the initial blast while other material burns more gradually in the fireball and the plume. The Seismic Record, the journal of the Seismological Society of America, published the refereed analysis.[1], [2]
The comparison base for large cryogenic-fuel accidents stays narrow
Infrasound is a well-established way to detect large explosions and other energetic atmospheric events, and the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption is one of the events tracked this way. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, CTBTO, also uses infrasound as one of its main monitoring techniques for nuclear test explosions. Observations of events at the size of a complete launch vehicle using cryogenic fuels such as liquid oxygen and liquid methane remain very limited, and Silber said most existing information comes from much smaller experiments or historical tests involving different propellant systems. Silber and colleagues published several papers last year on using infrasound to detect the reentry of the sample return capsule from the OSIRIS-REx mission to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.[2], [1]
