Friday, September 2, 2016

Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg expresses 'Disappointed' and hits out at SpaceX after Facebook's $200m satellite explodes

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

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





Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote about the explosion, confirming that the company's satellite was destroyed and said he was 'deeply disappointed'
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent the above tweet about the explosion in Florida Thursday afternoon 



'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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