SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Explodes During Static Fire Test, KO's Facebook's First Satellite

by Brandon Hill — Thursday, September 01, 2016, 10:10 AM EDT

SpaceX may have had plenty of successes sending its Falcon 9 rockets into orbit with expensive payloads and then returning the booster stage to earth intact, but the company’s string of victories came up short this morning.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded while sitting on its launchpad during a static fire test. The test was a routine procedure leading up to the scheduled September 3^rd launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. According to eyewitness accounts, multiple explosions were heard, with the force of the blasts shaking buildings located miles away from the launch pad.

Not surprisingly, those in close proximity to the launch facilities took to Twitter to not only post pictures, but to give commentary on what they witnessed this morning:

For anyone who wondered why launch prep takes weeks & why no one is allowed near, this is why #Falcon9 #SpaceX pic.twitter.com/ukCPmAhOhD
— Hunter Blaeser (@MinnesotaLoving) September 1, 2016

#Breaking| #SpaceX Falcon 9 explodes at launch site at Cape Canaveral, #Florida.
(pic via @Dehreeus ) pic.twitter.com/YzaeRkXuAG
— Just News (@aerdt) September 1, 2016

Here's a better picture showing actual flames from Cape Canaveral at the #SpaceX launch pad. pic.twitter.com/aW7Hyemiwr
— tuddle (@tuddle) September 1, 2016

Check this out from our First Alert Doppler Radar- the smoke from today's #SpaceX explosion dispersing north. #WESH pic.twitter.com/vthPjaGqSO
— Eric Burris (@EricBurrisWESH) September 1, 2016

Given that we’re still gathering information and that this incident just happened, we don’t have much else to go on. And SpaceX has not yet made an official statement on incident — and it’s probably a bit too early to give any ideas on what exactly went wrong on the launch pad.

We also don't know if the Eutelsat Amos-6 communication satellite was already onboard. This was Facebook’s first [leased] satellite in fact. It was to be used in Facebook’s Internet.org initiative to provide Internet access in underserved areas around the globe.

Updated 9/1/2016 @ 10:45am
We can now confirm that Facebook's satellite also went up in smoke:

Statement on this morning's anomaly pic.twitter.com/3Xm2bRMS7T
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 1, 2016

Tags: Facebook, Elon Musk, SpaceX, amos-6

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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