SpaceX Rocket Explosion Destroys Facebook Satellite in Major Setback for the South Bay Company

A rocket designed by South Bay's SpaceX, the Falcon 9, exploded on a Cape Canaveral launch pad Thursday morning, shaking buildings for miles and destroying a $200 million satellite that was set to be used in part for a Facebook internet initiative.

The blast sent black smoke billowing into the sky, and both the rocket and its payload were destroyed, but no one was hurt. The rocket was scheduled to launch the Amos-6 communications satellite, which was built by Israeli Aerospace Industries, early Saturday morning.

In a statement, the private spaceflight company attributed the launchpad explosion, which occurred shortly after 9 a.m., to "an anomaly on the pad" which resulted in a loss of the rocket and its payload. No one was injured in the explosion, the statement said.

SpaceX was scheduled to help deliver the Amos-6 satellite into orbit on Saturday, Sept. 3. The satellite included capabilities that Facebook was going to use as part of its Internet.org project to bring internet access to remote parts of the world.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that the failure occurred "during propellant fill operation," and the problem originated around an upper-stage oxygen tank.

The satellite was reported to be worth $195 million and the rocket another $62 million.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his disappointment, posting a message on the site from Africa, saying he was "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. Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well. We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided."

SpaceX is the private spaceflight company run by Musk, a billionaire tech investor, who also started PayPal and Tesla Motors. The explosion loomed as a major setback for SpaceX, which, according to the Los Angeles Times, announced this week that it has signed its first customer to launch a satellite with a reusable rocket. SpaceX seeks to prove it can safely reuse rockets to increase the frequency of launches while lowering their cost.

A SpaceX rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station broke apart over the Florida coast shortly after liftoff in June 2015 in the Falcon 9's only in-flight failure.

SpaceX contracts with NASA and other organizations to carry satellites into orbit or deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The company has made headlines for its reusable rockets that can blast off to space, release a satellite or payload, drop back down to Earth and land upright on a floating platform autonomously.

It just performed such a landing on Aug. 15.

SpaceX has been clear in its goals to use reusable rocket technology to reduce the costs of sending things to space, including humans. Musk has repeatedly stated his ambitions to send humans to Mars and beyond.

Its latest task was to deliver the Amos-6 satellite into orbit on Saturday. Amos-6 was a 5.5-ton satellite developed by the defense and aerospace company Israel Aerospace Industries.

In October, Facebook and French satellite provider Eutelsat agreed to a 5-year, $95 million lease on some of Amos-6's broadband for Facebook's Internet.org project. Facebook partnered with Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera and Qualcomm to bring affordable internet access to underserved parts of the world.

"Today's incident reminds us that all space flight is an inherently risky business," Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said in a statement. "As we continue to push the frontiers of space, there will be both triumphs and setbacks. But at the end of the day, I'm confident that our commercial space industry will be very successful."

By Marc Torrence and City News Service

See images and video of the explosion from social media:

Image via USLaunchReport, YouTube

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