ROCKET BLAST VIDEO: SpaceX rocket EXPLODES at Cape Canaveral space centre – blowing up Facebook’s £150MILLION internet satellite
BY GUY BIRCHALL
The SUN
NASA says SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred Thursday morning
A ROCKET has exploded at Cape Canaveral space centre – blowing up Facebook’s £150million internet satellite.
NASA says SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its pioneering unmanned rocket when disaster struck.
A series of explosions sent smoke and flames shooting through the sky and shook buildings miles away.
The blast took with it Facebook’s first satellite costing the company a whopping £150 million.
The social media giant’s devastated founder Mark Zuckerberg said: “As I’m here in Africa, I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided so much connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent.”
SpaceX – founded by PayPal and Tesla tycoon Elon Musk – confirmed there was an anomaly on the launch pad which resulted in the loss of the rocket and its payload.
The Israeli made Amos-6 communications satellite was, according to Tech Crunch, carrying technology to allow Zuckerberg’s firm to spot beam wireless internet directly to smartphones in sub-Saharan Africa.
The social media company was working in conjunction with a French satellite provider named Eutelsat to lease the communication array for five years.
It had roped in Israeli company SpaceCom – whose stocks fell nine per cent at the news – to operate the broadcast and telecoms satellite.
The first explosion occurred shortly before 9am with a second blast following about 20 minutes later.
Explosion at Cape Canaveral space centre during test fire of SpaceX rocket
Buildings several miles away shook from the blast and multiple explosions continued for several minutes. A cloud of dark smoke filled the overcast sky.
The test, considered routine, was in advance of a planned Saturday launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Additional details were not immediately available. But sirens could be heard in the aftermath.
NASA SpaceX’s major customer said the explosion occurred at Launch Complex 40 at the Air Force station, and Kennedy emergency staff was on standby.
At the same time, personnel were monitoring the air for any toxic fumes.
The rocket was supposed to hoist an Israeli communications satellite this weekend which reports suggest was set to carry technology for Facebook into orbit.
The Amos-6 satellite had amongst its functions the capability for the social media company to spot-beam broadband for their Internet.org initiative.