An explosion on the launch site of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is shown in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Thursday (Reuters photo)

MIAMI — An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on Thursday on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida during a test, destroying it along with its payload, but causing no injuries, the private space firm said.

The blast marks a major setback for California-based SpaceX and its founder, internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, who wants to revolutionise the launch industry by making rocket components reusable.

A dense plume of black smoke filled the air following the blast, which destroyed the Israeli communications satellite that Falcon had been due to deliver into orbit on Saturday.

Facebook was due to use the Amos-6 satellite to provide broadband internet coverage for swathes of sub-Saharan Africa as part of the social media giant's Internet.org initiative.

The US space agency NASA said the incident took place shortly after 9:00am (1300 GMT).

"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," the company said. "Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries."

Brevard County Emergency Management said there was no threat to the public from the incident.

Amos-6 was the heaviest payload to date for a SpaceX rocket, with an estimated value of between $200 and $300 million, according to John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

The accident — the second of its kind in the firm's history — is expected to significantly disrupt SpaceX plans for six more launches between now and January 2017.

"It's clearly a setback, but how great the setback is and how long the delay, it's impossible to know until there is more information available," said Logsdon.

A NASA spokeswoman told AFP that emergency services at the nearby Kennedy Space Centre were monitoring the situation and conducting air quality tests to ensure there is no threat to the health of staff.

Officials at the center advised all staff to remain inside until further notice.

SpaceX had successfully launched a Falcon 9 last month, sending a Japanese communications satellite into orbit and then landing the rocket on a floating drone ship.

The explosion comes just over a year after a Falcon 9 rocket failed just after liftoff, on June 28, 2015, destroying a Dragon cargo capsule bound for the International Space Station.

The firm has also lost several rockets as it attempted to land them upright on an ocean platform at the end of a flight. </s> An explosion destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket belonging to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its satellite cargo during routine test firing at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday, two days before it had been due to blast off and place the satellite in orbit.

SpaceX said there were no injuries and that an “anomaly” during the static fire test resulted in the loss of the rocket and the communications satellite owned by Israel-based Spacecom, which was going to be used by Facebook.

The large blast shook the launchpad leased by SpaceX at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station just after 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT), sending a thick plume of black smoke pouring into the air.

Musk said on Twitter that the loss of the rocket had occurred while it was being filled with propellant and that the problem originated around the upper stage oxygen tank.

It was not immediately known to what extent SpaceX’s launchpad was damaged or what the impact would be on the dozens of NASA and commercial satellite missions on its launch schedule.

People in buildings far from the facility felt the shock waves, but local authorities said residents were not at risk.

“Heard/felt weird BOOMS this morning as SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded … Thank God no injuries!” one local woman, Evie Hedman, wrote on Twitter.

Robin Seemangal, a space reporter with the Observer newspaper, quoted a source at the facility who told him it felt like the office they were in had been hit by lightning.

“We actually thought the building was collapsing, it shook us so bad,” Seemangal wrote in a tweet, quoting his source.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial rocket launches in the United States, will work with SpaceX to understand the cause of the accident, said agency spokesman, Hank Price.

SpaceX had been due to launch its 29th Falcon 9 rocket before dawn on Saturday, carrying the AMOS-6 satellite owned by Israel’s Space Communication.

Facebook would have been among the customers for bandwidth on that satellite. Last year, Facebook said it was partnering with Eutelsat Communications to boost data connectivity to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Thursday’s launchpad explosion could derail the sale of Spacecom for $285 million to Beijing Xinwei Technology Group. The companies unveiled the agreement last week, but said it was contingent on the successful launch of the satellite and completion of its in-orbit tests.

In a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Spacecom said the satellite’s loss will have “a significant impact” on the company, and it would continue to provide updates about the situation. Its shares closed down 8.9 percent at 38.95 shekels.

In a post from Africa, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said he was deeply disappointed at the loss of the satellite, which he said would have provided connectivity to many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent.

“We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided,” he wrote.

SpaceX had planned to dispatch as many as nine more missions before the end of the year, including two flights to place a 20-member satellite network into orbit for Iridium.

SpaceX, one of two companies that fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA, was next scheduled to take off in November for the orbiting laboratory, which flies 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

“NASA still is assessing what impacts, if any, the incident will have on future missions,” spokesman Michael Curie said in an email.

Shares of Musk’s companies Tesla Motors and SolarCity were down 4 percent at $203.65 and 5.5 percent at $19.50, respectively, in morning trade.

Tesla and SolarCity are not tied financially to SpaceX and it was not immediately clear if the explosion had affected their prices.

SpaceX says it has a backlog of more than $10 billion worth of launch orders from customers including NASA and commercial companies. On Wednesday, it said it had signed its first customer to use a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket, but that launch was not due until later this year. The rocket that blew up on Thursday had never been flown before.

The Hawthorne, California-based company was founded by Musk in 2002 and began launching its Falcon 9 rockets in June 2010, racking up 27 successful flights and one failure in a little more than six years.

SpaceX had recovered from a June 2015 launch accident that destroyed a load of cargo headed for the space station.

Earlier this year, it successfully broke a monopoly by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to win a military satellite launch contract.

The pad where SpaceX’s rocket was being prepared for launch is one of two operated by the company. Its other site is at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

SpaceX also has leased one of the old space shuttle launchpads at the Kennedy Space Center, adjacent to SpaceX’s current launch site. A fourth U.S. site is under construction in Texas.

Musk set up SpaceX with the goal of slashing launch costs to make travel to Mars affordable. The company plans to fly its first unmanned spacecraft to Mars in 2018 and to send humans to the red planet as early as 2024.

Musk is expected to unveil details of his Mars program at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, next month.

The blast at Cape Canaveral marks a setback for the California-based private space firm and Musk, who wants to revolutionize the launch industry by making rocket components reusable.

Dramatic footage broadcast by ABC News showed the rocket burst into a roaring ball of flame amid what appeared to be a succession of blasts — sending its payload tumbling to the ground as a dense plume of black smoke filled the air.

“At approximately 9:07 am ET (1307 GMT), during a standard prelaunch static fire test for the Amos-6 mission, there was an anomaly at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 resulting in loss of the vehicle,” the firm said.

“Per standard operating procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries.”

Facebook was contracted to use the Amos-6 to provide broadband internet coverage for large parts of sub-Saharan Africa and other remote parts of the world as part of the social media giant’s Internet.org initiative.

“Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well,” Zuckerberg said, referring to the solar-powered plane being developed by Facebook to make the internet available in remote areas.

European satellite operator Eutelsat — Facebook’s partner in the project — said in a statement it was committed to expanding broadband access in Africa despite the loss of the Amos-6.

A NASA spokeswoman told AFP that emergency services at the nearby Kennedy Space Center were monitoring the situation and conducting air quality tests to ensure there is no threat to the health of staff.

Officials at the center advised workers to remain inside until further notice, but Brevard County Emergency Management said there was no threat to the public from the incident.

The Amos-6 was the heaviest payload to date for a SpaceX rocket, with an estimated value of between $200 million-300 million, according to John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

The accident- comes just over a year after a Falcon 9 rocket failed after liftoff on June 28, 2015, destroying a Dragon cargo capsule bound for the International Space Station (ISS).

Before that, SpaceX had logged 18 successful launches of the Falcon 9 — including six of 12 planned supply missions to the ISS carried out as part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

It had carried out another eight successful launches since June 2015, including last month when a Falcon 9 successfully placed a Japanese communications satellite in orbit, and then landed intact on a floating drone ship.

Before then the firm lost several rockets as it attempted to land them upright on an ocean platform at the end of a flight — a crucial part of its strategy for reusable spacecraft.

While the blast is likely to disrupt SpaceX plans for six more launches between now and January 2017, experts made clear that such incidents are a normal part of the space learning curve.

“It’s clearly a setback, but how great the setback is and how long the delay, it’s impossible to know until there is more information available,” said Logsdon.

He noted that the launchpad damaged on Thursday was distinct from the one that will serve to launch SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, intended to ferry astronauts to the ISS starting in late 2017.

Loizos Heracleous, a professor of strategy at Warwick Business School, said such setbacks were par for the course — and would not affect SpaceX’s stated long-term goals of slashing the cost of space flight through the use of reusable rockets, and eventually colonizing Mars.

“SpaceX is gathering valuable experience, and each accident brings lessons on how to enhance the integrity of the craft for future missions,” he said.

“Given that SpaceX is working to provide NASA with a way to transport not just cargo, but also astronauts to the International Space Station, it is r six more launches between now and January 2017.

“It’s clearly a setback, but how great the setback is and how long the delay, it’s impossible to know until there is more information available,” said Logsdon.

A NASA spokeswoman told AFP that emergency services at the nearby Kennedy Space Center were monitoring the situation and conducting air quality tests to ensure there is no threat to the health of staff.

Officials at the center advised all staff to remain inside until further notice.

SpaceX had successfully launched a Falcon 9 last month, sending a Japanese communications satellite into orbit and then landing the rocket on a floating drone ship.

The explosion comes just over a year after a Falcon 9 rocket failed just after liftoff, on June 28, 2015, destroying a Dragon cargo capsule bound for the International Space Station (ISS).

The firm has also lost several rockets as it attempted to land them upright on an ocean platform at the end of a flight. </s> An explosion destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket belonging to Elon Musk’s SpaceX during routine test firing at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday, shaking buildings miles away and sending a thick plume of black smoke pouring into the air.

SpaceX said in a statement there were no injuries, but that an “anomaly” during the static fire test resulted in the loss of the rocket and the Israeli communications satellite it had been due to carry into space at the weekend.

A spokesman for Cape Canaveral Air Force Station said there was a “significant” explosion just after 9am ET (2pm irish-time) at Launch Complex 40, which is leased by SpaceX.

“Our emergency management teams are responding right now,” said the spokesman, Bryan Purtell.

The explosion tore through the launch site during a test firing of the Falcon 9 rocket ahead of the launch of the communications satellite owned by Spacecom which had been scheduled for before dawn on Saturday.

People in buildings several miles from the facility wrote on social media that they felt the blast, and live television images showed thick black smoke coming from the site. Local authorities said residents were not at risk.

“There is NO threat to general public from catastrophic abort during static test fire at SpaceX launch pad,” the Brevard County Emergency Management Office said in a tweet.

Robin Seemangal, a space reporter with the Observer newspaper, quoted a source at the facility who told him it felt like the building they were in had been hit by lightning.

“We actually thought the building was collapsing, it shook us so bad,” Seemangal wrote in a tweet, quoting his source.

It was not immediately known if 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.

SpaceX had recovered from a June 2015 launch accident that destroyed a load of cargo headed for the International Space Station.

The pad where SpaceX’s rocket was being prepared for launch is one of two operated by the company. Its other launch site is at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of slashing launch costs to make travel to Mars affordable. The company plans to fly its first unmanned spacecraft to Mars in 2018 and send humans to Mars as early as 2024. </s> During a pre-launch test this morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft was sitting on a launchpad ahead of a scheduled launch this Saturday to take an AMOS-6 communications satellite into orbit for the Israeli company Spacecom. That satellite is a joint effort between Facebook and France’s Eutelsat to provide internet connectivity to 14 African countries. Some reports indicated that the explosion shook office buildings some distance away.

Engadget reports that SpaceX was static firing the Falcon 9 engines ahead of this weekend’s launch at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), a process that’s standard procedure. During that test, the Air Force Museum at the Kennedy Space Center closes, however SpaceX does have a personnel building close to the launchpad. The Verge reports the US Air Force 45th Space Wing says there no known casualties and there’s not a threat to the general public. Last year, a Falcon 9 broke up shortly after launch on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

SpaceX says the explosion was caused by “an anomaly” on the launchpad, but the area was clear so there were no injuries. The company didn’t offer any word on an exact cause and it may be a while before more information is discovered, but the Falcon 9 and its payload, the AMOS-6 satellite, were both destroyed. </s> CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA (REUTERS) - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Spacecom's AMOS-17 communications satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday (Aug 6).

The mission comes nearly three years after a launch pad explosion destroyed a different Israeli communications satellite (Spacecom's AMOS-6) in September 2016, Business Insider reported.

The satellite will provide increased connectivity across Africa by supporting a "growth in a variety of broadcast, broadband, mobility, and data services," according to a press release. </s> "Loss of Falcon vehicle today during propellant fill operation," Mr Musk tweeted. "Originated around upper stage oxygen tank. Cause still unknown. More soon."

Dramatic footage broadcast by ABC News showed the rocket burst into a roaring ball of flame amid what appeared to be a succession of blasts - sending its payload tumbling to the ground as a dense plume of black smoke filled the air.

"At approximately 9:07am ET (1307 GMT), during a standard pre-launch static fire test for the Amos-6 mission, there was an anomaly at SpaceX's Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 resulting in loss of the vehicle," the firm said.

"Per standard operating procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries."

But the explosion destroyed the Israeli communications satellite that the Falcon 9 was due to deliver into orbit on Saturday - drawing a dismayed reaction from Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg. </s> NASA says SpaceX was conducting a routine test-firing of its rocket when the blast occurred.

An explosion rocked the SpaceX launch site in Florida on Thursday.

NASA says SpaceX was conducting a test-firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred on Thursday morning. The test, considered routine, was in advance of a planned Saturday launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Buildings several kilometres away shook from the blast, and multiple explosions continued for several minutes. A cloud of dark smoke filled the overcast sky.

Additional details were not immediately available. But sirens could be heard in the aftermath.

The rocket was supposed to hoist an Israeli satellite this weekend. </s> Smoke rises from a SpaceX launch site Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, at Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA said SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when a blast occurred. (AP Photo/Marcia Dunn)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An explosion has rocked the SpaceX launch site in Florida.

NASA says SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred Thursday morning. The test, considered routine, was in advance of a planned Saturday launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Buildings several miles away shook from the blast, and multiple explosions continued for several minutes. A cloud of dark smoke filled the overcast sky.

Additional details were not immediately available. But sirens could be heard in the aftermath.

The rocket was supposed to hoist an Israeli satellite this weekend. </s> CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched its ninth space mission of the year today (Aug. 6), delivering an Israeli communications satellite into orbit.

Despite typical summer storms in the area, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:23 p.m. EDT (2323 GMT), carrying skyward Amos-17, a communications satellite owned by the Israeli company Spacecom.

The California-based private spaceflight company originally aimed for a launch on Saturday (Aug. 3) but had to reevaluate its plans after preflight testing on Thursday (Aug. 1) indicated a valve issue on the Falcon 9. SpaceX opted to postpone the launch , replace the suspect valve and perform a second round of checks on the booster.

Related: Reusable Rocket Launch Systems: How They Work (Infographic)

Static-fire tests are a standard part of prelaunch testing that SpaceX conducts before each mission. During such tests, the rocket's first stage is held down and its engines are briefly fired to show that the booster's systems are working as expected prior to launch.

The Amos-17 mission is the first time a Falcon 9 rocket has flown a payload for Spacecom following the loss of its Amos-6 satellite on Sept. 1, 2016. On that day, SpaceX was in the process of conducting a prelaunch static-fire test when the rocket exploded. At the time, SpaceX performed its static-fire tests with the payload attached to the rocket, a practice the company has since stopped.

Spacecom says that the Amos-17 satellite will provide C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band communications services over Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The satellite is designed to last 20 years and costs an estimated $250 million, which includes the spacecraft, launch services and insurance.

The first-stage booster used for this mission, dubbed 1047.3 (an internal identifier by SpaceX), is a veteran member of the Falcon 9 fleet, having flown twice before. First launched in July 2018, it carried the Telstar 19 Vantage satellite.Then, in November 2018, the booster helped loft Qatar's Es'hail 2 communications satellite into orbit.

The sooty, stripped-down Falcon 9 first stage launched this evening without its iconic grid fins and landing legs, for this time it would not be recovered.

After pushing Amos-17 skyward, B1047.3 ended its service by splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. The vehicle needed every drop of its fuel to ensure that the heavy Amos-17 satellite — weighing in at 14,330 lbs. (6,500 kilograms) when fully fueled — is able to reach the highest possible orbit. So, there was not enough fuel for the booster to land itself back at the Cape, or out at sea on a SpaceX drone ship.

However, SpaceX is still perfecting another hallmark of its reusability efforts: recycling pieces of the payload fairing (also called the rocket's nose cone). The company dispatched its fleet of recovery vessels a few days prior to launch, ensuring that a net-equipped boat called GO Ms. Tree would be in position to (hopefully) catch another fairing as it parachuted back to Earth.

Payload fairings are designed to protect satellites during launch. SpaceX fairings come in two halves, which are jettisoned once their rocket reaches space. Together, the two pieces cost about $6 million — a hefty chunk of the rocket's overall cost. (It currently costs a minimum of $90 million to book a Falcon Heavy launch and $62 million for SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.)

When fairings fall back to Earth, they're typically reduced to scrap metal if they slam into the water or are exposed to briny seawater. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly stressed the corrosive nature of salt water, explaining that the company wants to reduce costs by cutting down on the refurbishments that each fairing half goes through after landing in the ocean. And that's where GO Ms. Tree comes in.

Related: SpaceX's Fairing-Catching Boat in Photos

In June, during the company's latest Falcon Heavy launch , SpaceX pulled off its first midair catch, a long-sought rocket-reusability milestone.

Acting as a giant catcher's mitt, GO Ms. Tree (formerly known as Mr. Steven) caught the powerful rocket's falling payload fairing off the Florida coast on June 25. This was a first for the speedy boat, which had come close on multiple occasions but had never managed to seal the deal.

SpaceX already reuses its first-stage rocket boosters, but it wants to expand its recycling efforts to include the fairings, further reducing launch costs. To that end, the California-based aerospace company equips both fairing halves with parachutes and small steering thrusters, to navigate themselves back to Earth and into GO Ms. Tree's net.

SpaceX has spent nearly two years testing the net-ship technique during select launches as well as performing numerous drop tests. GO Ms. Tree went through many design changes, including three different sets of arms and four nets, before the winning combination was found.

And that work paid off again today: About an hour after liftoff, Musk announced via Twitter that GO Ms. Tree succeeded in snagging a falling fairing half.

Fairing caught, video posting soonAugust 7, 2019

At an adjacent launch pad, just 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket awaits its own scheduled liftoff on Thursday (Aug. 8).

The Atlas V is equipped with five strap-on solid rocket motors designed to help lift the massive payload on board — the fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite (AEHF-5). Built by Lockheed Martin, the communications satellite will be used by the U.S. military and other government agencies for secure voice, video and data communications.

Before the Falcon 9 could get Amos-17 off the ground today, SpaceX needed approval from the Air Force's Eastern Range.

During a media teleconference on Monday (Aug. 5) for the upcoming AEHF mission, Air Force officials discussed the Cape's two planned launches this week.

Air Force officials signed off on a plan to launch the Falcon 9 and Atlas V rockets 35 hours apart. The rapid-fire launch schedule began when the Falcon 9 took to the skies and will end early Thursday morning with the Atlas V's planned 5:44 a.m. EDT (0944 GMT) liftoff.

With more and more launch providers flocking to set up shop at the Cape, the Air Force has been streamlining its processes and updating infrastructure to be in a better position to support more launches with less downtime in between.

Related: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Will Reuse a Rocket Within 24 Hours in 2019

One key feature that helps enable faster turnaround times is the advent of an autonomous self-destruct mechanism on rockets, which cuts the workload for each launch.

The onboard safety system cuts out the need for military officers to manually send signals to self-destruct errant boosters in case of an emergency and instead relies on onboard computers. The switch will also save millions of dollars in infrastructure costs as old, outdated systems are updated.

(Range safety teams now use GPS data instead of relying on ground-based radar systems.)

With companies like SpaceX aiming to launch multiple times in a 24-hour period , the Air Force is also working to ensure that it can support multiple launches on the same day.

"We would like to get to the point where we could launch [multiple vehicles] in 24 hours," officials said.

Ultimately, meeting this goal will still depend on which launch complexes the vehicles were launched from and what range resources were needed. But Air Force officials expressed optimism that same-day launches are on the horizon.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:25 p.m. EDT with news of the successful payload-fairing catch by GO Ms. Tree.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodes during a routine firing test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. SpaceX say there were no injuries, but that an "anomaly" during the static fire test resulted in the loss of the rocket and the Israeli Amos-6 communication satellite it was carrying.