Meant to post on the day it happened but got sidetracked; it's not everyday you get to see an explosion this huge, or this costly.

Tragically, owner Jeff Bezos was not on board at the time.

Yeah, it's the second-biggest rocket explosion after the Soviet N1 Moon Rocket that went boom right after start on July 3rd 1969. Saw it just minutes after it happened, Jamie Hyneman would have been proud.

I was actually reading about the N1 explosion the other day, was working my way through wikipedia's list of biggest non-nuclear manmade explosions during meals.

Wonder if we'll ever get an estimated yield on this one, and whether it topped a kiloton.

I hope he has even more expensive failures like this. He's a glorified slave driver and tax dodger.

Am I reading the OP correctly? We wanted Bezos to die? I'm not a fan of him, but seems extreme.

Not really, but if he did die we wouldn't mourn him.

We defunded NASA to give these idiots money.

Rich people just fucking suck.

I wasn't literally wishing death on him, it's a dark joke.

NASA's funding in the 21st century has been fairly stable prior to this most recent budget proposal, which is a serious issue.

However, it wasn't so we could fund the private launch program, that came about after most of the funding reductions.  And it was started so NASA can focus its resources on research and scientific activities and leave launch vehicle development and construction to others.  And it has worked, the development of private launch companies has been an enormous boon to all space efforts.  SpaceX's Falcon 9 has become the most reliable workhorse on earth, and Falcon Heavy has dramatically lowered the cost of heavy lift launch capability.  And despite being brand new, Blue Origin's New Glenn has already performed more flights and just as many successful missions as NASA's internally developed SLS.

And the SLS is entirely unsustainable, it costs 2.5 *billion* per launch.  New Glenn is between 50 and 100 million.  Falcon Heavy, ~100 million.  The development and deployment of these reusable heavy lift rockets is critical to the Artemis program's long term viability and the vitality of the nascent space industry.  SLS cannot be NASA's workhorse no matter their budget.

This explosion is a real bummer frankly.  New Glenn got off to a fantastic start and is the most powerful and capable reusable rocket in the US fleet (and by extension, in the world) and it's personally one of my favorite rockets currently in service.  And this explosion destroyed what is currently the only launch site for it.  This will take several months bare minimum to repair.  And its other launch sites under development will take equally as long.  

I get it, hating on rich people is all the rage today, but outside of charitable activity, investing in the establishment and growth of the emerging space industry is far and away one of the least offensive things they could use their wealth for.  And companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and Relativity Space are contributing in a serious and rapid fashion to humanity's space efforts.