A report published in the Reuters News said, SpaceX said on Friday it would shift Florida flights to a almost completed second site after damage to its launch pad on Thursday from the explosion of a rocket belonging to the space services company run by Elon Musk.
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SpaceX is a private aerospace company found by Jewish entrepreneur, engineer and inventor Elon Musk. SpaceX already has more than 70 mission on its manifest, but the tragic loss of a second billion dollar rocket booster has caused wide-spread concern about the company’s operations. Since then, it has racked up 27 successful flights and one launch accident in June 2015 that destroyed a load of cargo headed for the space station.
Based near Los Angeles, SpaceX is run by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is perhaps better known as the founder of electric auto company Tesla.
The fire that burst from the top stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, quickly consuming it and the satellite it was to carry to orbit, did more than melt aluminum and crack carbon fiber on a $62 million rocket and throw another wrench into Elon Musk’s already busy day. They were suspended on Sunday morning and when they resumed trade lost another 34 percent. “In a conference call with reporters, Spacecom’s general counsel Gil Lotan said it was too early to say” whether Xinwei was still interested in buying Spacecom. The form said it hoped the deal would continue.
The incident has already negatively affected shares for some SpaceX customers, including the Israeli satellite operator that owns the Amos line of satellites, Spacecom. It added the accident would not impact its broader strategy to establish an integrated space information network.
Amos-6 was supposed to be leased to Eutelsat Communications and Facebook (FB) to expand internet access in sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, SpaceX is still picking up clues to find what could have caused the explosion.
Facebook’s plans to provide Internet connectivity in Africa were dealt a major blow on Thursday when a rocket carrying an important communications satellite exploded just before launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
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SpaceX now operates 3 launch pads – 2 in Florida and 1 in California at Vandenberg Air Force Base SpaceX’s other launch sites were not affected by yesterday’s events.Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base is in the final stages of an operational upgrade and Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center remains on schedule to be operational in November.
