Disaster for SpaceX as rocket carrying Facebook satellite explodes (VIDEO)

A SpaceX rocket exploded on a Florida launchpad during fueling earlier this morning NZT (see video below) — setting back Facebook's plan to provide free internet to the developing world.

The privately held SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, was using the US Air Force's Cape Canaveral complex for the launch of Amos-6, an Israeli communications satellite that had been due to lift-off on Sunday NZT. The Falcon 9 rocket was being fueled ahead of a routine test firing of the rocket's engines.

The destroyed satellite was intended to beam free internet service to sub-Saharan Africa as part of a collaboration between Facebook and Eutelsat to connect people in remote parts of the world, Bloomberg reports.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, currently in Africa, posted that "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.” The launch would have been the first phase of the entrepreneur's Internet.org initiative to bring broadband to the two-thirds of the world that currently has no connectivity.

The explosion was also a major blow to the owner of the Amos-6, Israeli satellite operator Space Communication. The company told Bloomberg that the satellite was insured. But a stock market filing says Space Communication's pending $US285 million sale to Beijing Xinwei Group was contingent on a successful launch.

The rocket was unmanned and there were no reports of injuries.

According to a Time report, Facebook had paid around $US95 million to rent capacity on Amos-6 over the next five years.

It was SpaceX's second explosion involving a commercial launch. The other was in June last year, taking out a rocket that had been due to take cargo including Microsoft HoloLens headsets to the International Space Station.

Here's the first video showing SpaceX's rocket exploding https://t.co/JBPTZLIhSt pic.twitter.com/vmbHcm7NTm
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) September 1, 2016

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Disaster for SpaceX as rocket carrying Facebook satellite explodes (VIDEO)

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