USA TODAY International Edition
Explosion rocks SpaceX launch site; payload lost
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its pad during a test Thursday morning at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. No one was injured.
Witnesses reported seeing a fireball, hearing multiple explosions, feeling shock waves in buildings several miles away at Kennedy Space Center and seeing a plume of smoke rising from Launch Complex 40 just after 9 a. m.
“SpaceX can confirm that in preparation for today's static fire, there was an anomaly on the pad resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its payload," SpaceX said in a statement. "Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries.”
The rocket was preparing for a test- firing of its nine Merlin main engines as a standard check of their readiness for launch, and so the area was cleared for that hazardous operation.
The rocket was scheduled to launch the Amos- 6 communications satellite for Israeli company Spacecom at 3 a. m. Saturday.
The satellite built by Israeli Aerospace Industries also was destroyed.
Facebook had planned to use some of the satellite's capacity to expand its Internet. org initiative in Africa.
Kimberly Prosser, director of Brevard County Emergency Management, said the explosion took place on the launch pad at about 9: 15 a. m.
“There are no hazards to the general public,” Prosser said.
In addition to launching satellites and International Space Station cargo, SpaceX is one of two companies, along with Boeing, that are preparing to launch astronauts to the space station in the next 18 months.