Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his 'deep disappointment' at the
destruction of his revolutionary $200million satellite on Thursday when
the SpaceX Falcon 9 owned by Elon Musk's company suffered a catastrophic
explosion on the Cape Canaveral launch pad during a routine pre-launch
check.
Zuckerberg
is currently visiting several countries in Africa and likely would have
marked the occasion of Facebook's Amos 6 satellite being launched into
orbit on Saturday, had it not been destroyed around 9am in the massive
blast. The satellite was to provide at least 14 countries on the
continent and Middle East with free broadband.
'As
I'm here in Africa, I'm 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,' Zuckerberg wrote.
Disaster: The mishap dealt a severe
blow to SpaceX, still scrambling to catch up with satellite deliveries
following a launch accident last year. It's also a setback for NASA,
which has been counting on the private company to keep the International
Space Station stocked with supplies and, ultimately, astronauts
'Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well.
'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
statement about the loss of the satellite appears to be a jab at fellow
billionaire Musk, who lost about $390million as the stock prices of two
of his companies, Telsa and SolarCity, dropped after the accident at
Cape Canaveral.
After
the accident, shares in Elon Musk's electric car maker Tesla dropped
5.3 percent and his SolarCity venture was also down 9.1 percent.
The
tech CEO's publicly clashed when Musk took to Twitter seemingly in
response to Zuckerberg's Facebook statement to deny that his unmanned
rocket was to blame, as he made it clear that the cause of the accident
was unknown.
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