The explosion occurred at Launch Complex 40 at the Air Force station, right next door to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where emergency staff went on standby and monitored the air for any toxic fumes.
Advertisement
“If anyone on this planet can recover from this, it’s Elon Musk”, said Dick Rocket, CEO and founder of Cape Canaveral-based New Space Global. Both stages use rocket-grade (RP-1) kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellant.
A SpaceX update several hours after the explosion said the occurred during fueling. And now, what can be called as the major setback to Facebook, its SpaceX rocket carrying a satellite exploded.
Facebook first announced its plans to launch a satellite to provide internet access to remote parts of Africa in October 2015, at which time Zuckerberg said: “I’m excited to announce our first project to deliver internet from space. Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries”, SpaceX said via Twitter.
The test was in advance of Saturday’s planned launch of an Israeli-made communications satellite that was supposed to provide home internet for parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
Damage to a launch pad from the explosion of a SpaceX rocket on Thursday may send the private space services company run by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk scrambling to finish a second Florida launch site, officials said on Friday. “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.
“The Falcon 9 up till now was very reliable”, Rubin said.
A spokesman for at least one satellite company that uses SpaceX, who spoke on condition his company not be identified, said it’s reconsidering whether its payloads should be atop rockets during engine tests in the future, in light of Thursday’s events.
Spacecraft destroyed: a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral yesterday. The companies unveiled the agreement last week, but said it was contingent on the successful launch of the satellite and completion of its in-orbit tests.
Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX is attempting to increase the commercial viability of manned space flights, and the idea of reusing rockets is the bedrock of this idea. Dark smoke filled the overcast sky. Eutelsat, the French satellite provider, and Facebook invested $95 million in a five-year lease on the Ka-band communication array.
“Considering they do have a decent success rate, I don’t see much harm being done to the industry as a whole”, he said.
Advertisement
The aerospace company is investigating what caused the rocket explosion.
