An Explosion Destroyed the Anduril Rocket Motor Test Site in Mississippi

A rocket vehicle exploded during a test run at the Anduril test site in Mississippi last Friday, marking a return to basics hopes to become a major supplier of defense equipment. Anduril publicly confirmed the incident when contacted by WIRED.

No one was injured in the blast, which destroyed Anduril’s testing facility, company CEO Matt Grimm said social media post Tuesday hours after WIRED contacted the company about the incident.

Three people familiar with Anduril’s work, who were granted anonymity to discuss the crisis, tell WIRED that they can’t remember a time when a similar test caused an explosion in the past few years, and they didn’t know what could have caused it last week. The incident halted an important part of the prototype testing project that makes money on Anduril’s rocket vehicle, and rebuilding could take months, one of the people said.

Grimm wrote in his letter, which included photos of the burned-out equipment, that Anduril hopes to resume testing within a few weeks. “Anduril continues to manufacture and test rocket motors every week, and the manufacturing facility remains on schedule,” he said. “Repetition leads to gradual progress, and we are already coordinating our tests for further testing.”

Shannon Prior, a spokeswoman for Anduril, did not respond to a request for comment on the story beyond pointing to Grimm’s post.

Anduril had planned to start building rocket motors on July 1, 2025, but a year later, it was not supposed to, four people familiar with the matter said, contradicting Grimm’s contention that the effort is on time. A former Pentagon official who helped fund Anduril in the past told WIRED he expected a delay of years despite the company’s promise to deliver the critical technology on time. The production of solid rocket vehicles in the US is mainly controlled by a few companies, which leads to a shortage that the Pentagon is trying to solve by supporting developers.

Anduril has been valued at $61 billion by investors and has completed billions of dollars in government contracts around the world by manufacturing dronesships, and diagnostic toolsbut the rocket motor unit located in McHenry, Mississippi has experienced repeated problems. In March, WIRED reported on the list of safety and technology issues at the McHenry facility, including an employee accidentally burning his hand with a lighter and buying expensive equipment that failed to perform as intended.

Get started social mediaFounder Anduril Palmer Luckey framed some of the content described in WIRED’s original report as “complaining about … nonsense.” The company’s chairman, Trae Stephens, he wrote in different areas where Anduril is “growing faster than anyone in the industry” and “fixing problems as we find them.”

Before building rocket motors at McHenry, Anduril has invested in the design, construction, and testing of rocket motors for customers such as the US Navy. The business earned the company several million dollars last year, according to a person familiar with the figure. Even critics of the sector say the test business has done well. After the prototypes are built, Anduril tests how the design works, including how long it takes for the burner to burn. Customers get data to inform their plans. That work can be stopped.