The rocket launch provider company SpaceX incurred $390 million loss as its Florida’s port destructed and the stock prices of two of its companies dropped by 5.3 and 9.1 percent of the companies Tesla and Solar City respectively, after the accident.
Advertisement
But service arrangements had also been agreed with a number of key clients, including Facebook and Eutelsat Communications.
The explosion that occurred on September 1 in Cape Canaveral base rocked the commercial space flight industry.
Spacecom has been hit hard in the aftermath of the Thursday explosion that destroyed the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its payload. The Israeli communications satellite operator said that it could seek compensation or a free flight on the US space agency’s Falcon 9 rocket to cover the cost of its now destroyed advanced communications satellite. “As I’m here in Africa, I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent, Zuckerberg said in a statement”.
The Israeli communications company Spacecom, which lost one of its satellites in the accident last Thursday, is demanding $50 million or a free flight from SpaceX. Facebook and Space Communication have been partners for some time now in developing new satellite technologies to be able to beam Internet to different parts of the world.
Officials of the Israeli company said in a conference call with reporters yesterday that Spacecom also could collect £154m ($205m) from Israel Aerospace Industries, which built the AMOS-6 satellite. This explosion also led to the rapid depletion of market share (equity) of both Spacecom and Musk, adding upto about $30 million and $700 million respectively.
The cause of the accident is under investigation.
SpaceX has more than 70 missions on its manifest, worth more than £7.5 billion ($10bn), for commercial and government customers.
In January 2013, Spacecom announced it had signed a contract with SpaceX for the launch of Amos-6 on the Falcon 9.
Advertisement
“The company said in a statement, “[It has] updated the acquirer (Xinwei) about the loss of the satellite and is examining, along with the buyer, the possibility to amend the agreement and adjust to the new situation”.
