An Israeli satellite that was integral to plans to bring high-speed internet to rural Africa has been destroyed following an explosion at Nasa’s Cape Canaveral launch complex. The US SpaceX company specializes in launching payloads and satellites into space.
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Developed for Spacecom by Israel’s Aerospace Industries at an estimated cost of $200, a deal for its acquisition by the Chinese communications company Beijing Xinwei Technology was contingent on the satellite’s successful launch into orbit Saturday.
The rocket was poised to launch the Amos-6 communications satellite, which included the capabilities for Facebook to spot-beam broadband for its Internet.org initiative.
Bezeq Israel Telecom (BEZQ.TA), Israel’s largest telecoms provider, said its digital satellite TV provider unit YES could be impacted by the loss of Amos-6.
Facebook appears to have become involved nearly three years later, when in October 2015, it struck a deal with satellite communications company Eutelsat to share AMOS-6’s broadband capacity.
When a SpaceX rocket exploded on Thursday, one casualty was Facebook.
The post Facebook satellite destroyed appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
And for companies like Facebook, getting more people online means the potential for new users and greater ad revenues.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Israeli communications satellite were destroyed Thursday while the booster was being fueled for a routine prelaunch test firing at its Florida launch pad.
Aquila is an Internet-via-drone project under development by Facebook.
“We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided”, said Zuckerberg, who is now in Africa.
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The aircraft, according to Facebook, circles a region of about 60 miles in diameter over which it can beam down connectivity – for up to three months.
