MCHENRY — A rocket motor exploded during a test at an Anduril facility in McHenry, Mississippi. The explosion damaged the company's testing stand, but no injuries were reported.

Matt Grimm, Anduril's chief operating officer, stated in a social media post that the company expects to resume testing within weeks. "Disciplined iteration begets steady progress, and we're already putting the pieces of our test stand back together for the next test," Grimm said. Anduril has not yet begun mass production of rocket motors, which it had planned to begin on July 1, 2025.

Anduril's rocket motor unit is based in McHenry, Mississippi. The company acquired the defense startup Adranos in 2023, which had originally established the facility. Anduril is currently searching for a new head of production at the McHenry site.

A fire in 2021, partly caused by improper waste disposal, melted the aluminum wall of one building at the McHenry facility. "Anduril is continuing to build and test rocket motors weekly, and the production facility remains on schedule," Grimm said.

Trae Stephens, Anduril's chairman, said the company is "scaling faster than anyone in this industry" and "fixing problems as we find them." Anduril's prototype testing business earned tens of millions of dollars in revenue last year. The company is valued at $61 billion by investors.

Why It Matters

The incident comes as the company aims to scale its rocket motor production to begin mass production in 2025. Solid rocket motor production in the U.S. is largely controlled by a small number of companies.