The satellite was to be used as part of social media giant Facebook’s mission to bring affordable internet access to less-developed countries.
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In a post previous year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the satellite would “cover large parts of West, East and Southern Africa. We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided”, he added, referencing Facebook’s massive Internet-beaming drone. There was no immediate word on any injuries; the launch pad usually is cleared before a test firing of a SpaceX Falcon rocket.
The company said the explosion began near the upper stage oxygen tank while propellant was being loaded.
The cause is unknown and has been put down to “an anomaly” by the satellite’s owner, Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
Explosions destroyed a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its entire cargo during a test launch Thursday morning in Cape Canaveral, FL. It also launches polar-orbiting satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and is building a fourth launch site in Texas.
The test-gone-awry was to prepare for the launch planned for Saturday of Facebook’s first satellite out of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.The social media giant’s space mission is meant to provide internet access to unconnected, remote areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. The rocket’s launch was planned for Saturday.
Since SpaceX, which has a 93 percent success rate with its for-hire launches, helps supply the International Space Station, NASA addressed the matter.
The explosion occurred during a routine static test fire ahead of Saturday’s planned (and now scrubbed) launch of Facebook’s first satellite. The rocket and communications satellite it was carrying were both destroyed, according to SpaceX.
Amos-6 was the heaviest payload to date for a SpaceX rocket, with an estimated value of between $200 and $300 million, according to John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.
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SpaceX is one of two companies NASA uses to ship supplies to the space station.
