The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket took off Sunday morning Cape Canaveral, Florida at 10:21 a.m., local time. According to a Tech Crunch report, which was hosting a livestream of the rocket launch on its website that it appears the rocket has “broken apart”.
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It was the first private commercial launch company to put a spacecraft into orbit, rendezvous with the space station and deliver cargo and supplies there.
Student Spaceflights director Jeff Goldstein says another round of experiments will not be able to be launched until 2016.
There was no immediate word from SpaceX, which is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, or NASA on the cause of the explosion.
SpaceX and NASA are expected to have a press conference Sunday afternoon to discuss the mission failure. This is the first major failure for a Falcon 9 mission, which number 19 total since 2010.
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The mission was also going to serve as the third test of SpaceX’s plan to make a reusable rocket. While today’s failure was a huge loss, there are supply launches scheduled in the coming months, and the three astronauts now on board have enough supplies to last them until the fall.
