“We actually thought the building was collapsing, it shook us so bad”, Seemangal wrote in a tweet, quoting his source.
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Internet.org isn’t just about satellites, though.
According to a report from space industry publication Space News, Israel’s Amos 6 communications satellite was going to be leased by Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant Facebook to bring internet access to Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Senator Bill Nelson, Democrats for Life of America, whose single space shuttle flight ended 10 days before the Challenger disaster in 1986, said in a statement that the SpaceX accident “reminds us all that space flight is an inherently risky business”. Its shares closed down 8.9 percent at 38.95 shekels.
The the unmanned rocket exploded during a static test firing, officials said.
He said in a Facebook post: “As I’m here in Africa, I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent”.
Zuckerberg added that his company has other technologies in the works, “and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided”. The potential impact on its revenues was estimated at up to 50 million euros by 2019, the company said in a statement.
The explosion is the second major setback for the Israeli satellite services company, after all contact was lost a year ago with the Amos-5 spacecraft. The Hawthorne, California-based company has contracts with NASA to ferry cargo and crew to the International Space Station and contracts with commercial satellite companies to send satellites into orbit. SpaceX, one of two companies making deliveries, is also working on a crew capsule to ferry station USA astronauts.
“NASA still is assessing what impacts, if any, the incident will have on future missions”, spokesman Michael Curie said in an email. Both the Falcon 9 rocket and the satellite were destroyed. “Despite the difficulties, commercial spaceflight will carry on with American drive and ingenuity”, he said in a statement.
Nasa has said that the company was conducting routine testing of its Falcon 9 rocket when the explosion occured.
Thursday’s incident is the first mishap since June 2015, when a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft destined for the space station blew apart 2 minutes and 19 seconds after launch.
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There are only around 50 insured space launches each year – which CNBC reported as being worth $750 million in premiums.
