SpaceX launch site explosion in Florida: What we know now

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — AN EXPLOSION has rocked a SpaceX launch site in the US state of Florida during a routine rocket test, destroying Facebook’s first-ever inteet satellite.

SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred shortly after 9am Thursday.

The $US200 million satellite, AMOS-6, was a project of Facebook’s Inteet.org program to deliver inteet to the developing world.

It was supposed to ride a Space X Falcon 9 into orbit on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

SpaceX said in a statement about the blast: “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. Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries.”

Buildings several kilometres away shook from the blast, and multiple explosions continued for several minutes. Dark smoke filled the overcast sky. About 30 minutes later, a black cloud hung low across the easte horizon.

Two NASA astronauts were conducting a space walk 450km up, outside the Inteational Space Station, when the explosion occurred. Mission Control did not immediately advise them of the accident.

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 initial blast sounded like lightning, but was followed by the sounds of more explosions.

The rocket was supposed to hoist an Israeli communications satellite this weekend.

SpaceX is one of two companies shipping supplies to the space station for NASA. It’s also working on a crew capsule to ferry station US astronauts; that first flight was supposed to come as early as next year.

The explosion is a setback for SpaceX. The Califoia-based company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, had been ramping up with frequent launches to make up for a backlog created by a launch accident in June 2015. SpaceX was leasing the pad from the Air Force for its Falcon launches.

The company is also redoing a former shuttle pad at Kennedy for future manned flights for NASA.