CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — Facebook head honcho Mark Zuckerberg must be pissed with his SpaceX counterpart Elon Musk after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a satellite that FB was planning to use exploded on the launch pad. <br /> <br />The blast occurred as the rocket was being fueled on Thursday, but the cause of the explosion was not immediately known, Reuters reported. <br /> <br />The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is designed to transport satellites and spacecraft into space. It has nine first-stage engines, which can sustain two engine shutdowns during flight without compromising the mission, according to SpaceX. <br /> <br />The second stage delivers the payload into orbit. Its single engine can be reignited several times to send multiple payloads into space. <br /> <br />The first stage of the rocket is designed to return to Earth so it can be reused. Rocket burns decelerate the Falcon 9 before four landing legs deploy. <br /> <br />The Falcon 9 that exploded on Thursday was carrying an Amos-6 satellite, which Facebook planned to use to boost internet connectivity in Africa. The $62 million Falcon 9 rocket was due to launch on Saturday. <br /> <br />Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook that he was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the mission’s failure. <br /> <br />And, Elon Musk aside, he definitely won’t be the only one. <br /> <br />Facebook is a customer of Israeli company Spacecom, which owns the Amos-6 satellite. <br /> <br />It remains to be seen if the blast will scupper Spacecom’s $285 million sale to a Chinese company, which was announced last week, according to Reuters. <br /> <br />Conditions attached to the deal said the satellite had to be launched successfully and complete in-orbit tests. Whoops!
