An uncrewed SpaceX rocket expected to carry an Israeli satellite to space on Watch MidhunterSaturday exploded on its pad before a test Thursday morning, the company has confirmed.
The explosion occurred at 9:07 a.m. ET.
"The anomaly originated around the upper stage oxygen tank and occurred during propellant loading of the vehicle," SpaceX said in a statement. "Per standard operating procedure, all personnel were clear of the pad and there were no injuries."
This explosion deals a blow to not only SpaceX’s aggressive launch schedule, but also to Facebook’s plans to test its ambitions to bring Internet connectivity to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Israel's Amos 6 communications satellite was going to be leased by Mark Zuckerberg's social network to provide internet access to sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report from space industry publication Space News.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is "deeply disappointed" by the SpaceX failure in a Facebook post Thursday.
"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," he wrote.
"... We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided."
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Photos posted to Twitter show a black plume of smoke rising from the private company's pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
People on the scene also reported hearing a loud boom and that the explosion shook buildings near the test site.
A full video of the failure shows multiple explosions, with the first starting near the top of the Falcon 9. (The video, embedded below, really gets going around the 1-minute-mark.)
According to a tweet sent by the Brevard County Emergency Management Office, the "catastrophic abort during [the] static test fire" is not a threat to the general public.
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During these tests, SpaceX clears the pad ahead of firing the rocket.
SpaceX conducts these kinds of test fires ahead of launches in order to make sure that the rocket is functioning properly before attempting to launch expensive payloads to orbit.
It is still unclear exactly what caused this rocket failure, though an investigation into the matter will likely be launched soon.
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