SpaceX said the explosion was caused by an anomaly at the launch pad. SpaceX has confirmed the explosion destroyed the rocket and its payload, a satellite for Facebook’s internet.org project.
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The Israeli AMOS-6 satellite destroyed in the blast was set to be part of a Facebook scheme to provide internet coverage to parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. While the former had been trying to connect the people of the world to each other, the latter had been trying to connect the people of the world to Mars.
Retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly underlined this as he tweeted: “Space is a hard & a risky business”.
Four hours later, SpaceX Chief Executive, Elong Musk, used the same media to explain the origins of the explosion.
Even before Thursday’s explosion, SpaceX had contracted with NASA to use a different launch pad at Cape Canaveral for future launches. There has not yet been a statement from SpaceX, the private company that manufactures and launches rockets.
Vass knows. He’s been part of tech-related space programs before, and Viavi’s technology is about to help with the NASA launch of a rocket aiming for an asteroid next week.
“I am being told the explosion shook the entire facility”, Robin Seemangal, a reporter with the Observer newspaper who was one of the first to report the blast, tweeted, adding that his source at the facility initially thought his office had been hit by lightning.
Witnesses reported seeing a fireball, hearing multiple explosions, feeling shock waves in buildings several miles away at Kennedy Space Center and seeing a plume of smoke rising from Launch Complex 40 just after 9 a.m.
In a post from Africa, Mark Zuckerberg said he was deeply disappointed and saddened at the destruction of the satellite which he said would have provided internet connectivity to many entrepreneurs and others across the African continent.
According to the preliminary reports, it is said that a problem raised with the upper stage oxygen tanks.
Brevard County Emergency Management said there was no threat to the public from the incident.
Two NASA astronauts were conducting a spacewalk 250 miles up, outside the International Space Station, when the explosion occurred.
SpaceX is one of two companies which ships supplies to the International Space Station for Nasa.
The Falcon 9 was supposed to deliver Spacecom’s Amos-6 communication satellite this Sunday. The California-based company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, had been ramping up with frequent launches to make up for a backlog created by a launch accident in June 2015.
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NASA later put out a statement, saying the space agency remains confident in its commercial partners, SpaceX included.
