The explosion is a major blow for SpaceX – and also for NASA, which relies on the company to keep the space station equipped with food, science experiments and other supplies. “CNN has not heard back from SpaceX”.
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During a reportedly routine test, a SpaceX rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida exploded this morning.
Update 10:44 ET: SpaceX has briefly commented on the matter, confirming that an “anomaly” caused the rocket to explode.
In a tweet Thursday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, said the issue “originated around upper stage oxygen tank”.
Facebook planned to use some of the satellite’s capacity to expand its Internet.org initiative in Africa.
A massive fireball and explosion erupted Thursday at SpaceX’s main launch pad, destroying a rocket as well as a satellite that Facebook was counting on to spread internet service in Africa. Both the rocket and satellite were destroyed.
Facebook and Eutelsat agreed to pay $95 million over as many as five years to Israeli company Spacecom, which owned the satellite. He added that the satellite “would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent”.
It’s understood an explosion ripped through the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It’s uncertain if the company will attempt another satellite launch soon. That new launch pad, Launch Complex 39A, had previously been used for space shuttle launches.
The maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy, a heavy launch vehicle made of three Falcon 9 rocket cores.
SpaceX is trying to change the economics of space flight by developing rockets that land upright after launch and can then be reused.
Two NASA astronauts were conducting a spacewalk 250 miles up, outside the International Space Station, when the explosion occurred. The 2015 accident was caused by a faulty structural part, or low-tech strut, but it also raised some doubts inside NASA about the company’s overall engineering and testing safeguards.
Brevard County Emergency Management Director Kimberly Prosser said the explosion took place on the launch pad at about 9:15 a.m. A spokesman for NASA said he had no information and that the agency was not involved.
But amid these ambitious plans, the company has also suffered setbacks.
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Thursday’s incident marks a blemish on SpaceX’s record, which had been clean since another Falcon 9 was lost during a launch in June of past year.
