The AMOS-6 satellite on board the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, was to be leased by Facebook for six years once operational, and was worth a reported US0-million.
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The explosion follows a run of recent successes for SpaceX, including landing part of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating barge as another stage continued into space. Smoke billowed from the pad where the AMOS-6 satellite was to be launched Saturday morning.
Last year, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the Menlo Park social networking company, expressed he was eager to use the AMOS-6 satellite to provide Internet connectivity to hard-to-reach parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Pictures of the launch site after the explosion showed the top portion of a launch pad tower, which is used to raise the rocket and support it vertically, had canted over.
He says that they will remain true to their mission of connecting all people the world over and will continue working until everyone can benefit from the opportunities the satellite would have provided to them. SpaceX attributed the disaster to an issue with the Launchpad and not the rocket.
The loss of the satellite is expected to delay the rollout of an important component of Facebook’s ambitious plan to connect every person on the planet to the Internet.
A rocket and its onboard satellite have been destroyed in a massive explosion which rocked a SpaceX launch pad during a routine test for a planned launch. According to SpaceX, this anomaly occurred during a standard pre-launch test. Its rockets have carried supplies to the International Space Station as well as satellites. That new launch pad, Launch Complex 39A, had previously been used for space shuttle launches.
A SpaceX rocket was being prepared for a test firing when it blew up.
NASA – SpaceX’s major customer – said the explosion occurred at Launch Complex 40 at the Air Force station, and Kennedy emergency staff was on standby.
“Based on preliminary findings, the state comptroller believes there are serious long-term planning gaps in the development of satellites in Israel, even before the SpaceX explosion”.
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On Thursday, Zuckerberg released a statement on Facebook expressing his disappointment at the destruction of a satellite that would have provided internet connection to so many across the continent but suggested that all was not lost.
