An explosion destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket, together with an Israeli communications satellite Amos 6. The rocket belonged to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, while the satellite to the Israeli Spacecom. The incident occurred during preparations for a routine test firing at the United States’ Cape Canaveral in Florida, two days before it was scheduled to blast off and place the ‘Amos 6’-Satellite in orbit.
Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur who helped found Tesla Motors, said on Twitter that the rocket’s loss occurred while it was being filled with propellant and the problem originated around the upper stage oxygen tank. It was not immediately known to what extent SpaceX’s launch-pad was damaged or what the impact would be on the dozens of NASA and commercial satellite missions on its launch schedule. Businessman Shaul Elovitch, owner of the Israeli Spacecom, could pay the price for the rocket blowing up.
Last week a contract was signed for the sale of the Israeli Spacecom to the Chinese company Xinwei for some 285 million dollars. One of the conditions for the sale, however, was a successful launch of Amos-6 – which could mean the cancellation of the deal. Another significant blow to the Israeli company is the fact that Amos 6 was supposed to serve leading governmental agencies in Israel and replace the aging Amos-2. Professor Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael, chairman of the Israel Space Agency, said the disastrous incident “brings into question the entire future of satellite communications in Israel.”
Also Mark Zuckerberg hurried to express sorrow over the explosion, saying that this would harm Facebook’s activity in Africa, as the satellite was meant to provide broadband lines to the continent.