SpaceX
announced that its rocket, along with the payload, was lost during an anomaly at the company’s Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 pad. The anomaly occurred at 09:07 during a standard pre-launch static fire test of the Falcon rocket. The company’s founder, Elon Musk,
tweeted that the vehicle was destroyed during a propellant fill operation.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, said yesterday in a
post on the social network that he was “deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent”.
He
announced in October 2015 that the AMOS-6 was Facebook’s first project to deliver Internet from space. The satellite would have launched into a geostationary orbit that would cover large parts of West, East and Southern Africa. The company planned to work with local partners across the regions to help communities begin accessing internet services provided through satellite.
In a
press release distributed last year, Eutelsat said the payload on the satellite was configured with high gain spot beams. Its capacity was “optimised for community and Direct-to-User Internet access using affordable, off-the-shelf customer equipment”. The satellite would also have enabled Eutelsat to step up its broadband activity in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Zuckerberg noted in the 1, September post that the company has developed other technologies to connect people. One such is the Aquila solar-powered plane that is set to beam Internet to remote parts of the world. Facebook
indicated in July 2016 that it will continue testing the technology over the next year.
“We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided,” Zuckerberg’s post concluded.
*Image courtesy of Keri J under this license