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First Satellite in Facebook's Plan For Global Internet Access Exploded With Falcon 9 (qz.com)
Mike Murphy, reporting for Quartz: The first step in Facebook's grand vision to connect the entire world to the internet -- or Facebook -- has gone up in flames. Earlier today, a SpaceX rocket carrying a satellite that Facebook planned to use in its internet.org initiative exploded during a pre-launch test at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket was due to send the satellite up into orbit Sept. 3, but during the set-up and testing process, an "anomaly" occurred on the launch pad, according to SpaceX, and the rocket exploded. Facebook had planned to lease some of the bandwidth on the satellite, Amos 6, from its operator, the Israeli company SpaceCom, to beam internet to sub-Saharan Africa. The satellite was intended to fill in until Facebook's more ambitious plans for internet access are ready, including developing and launching massive solar-powered drones that use lasers to beam internet to the ground. This the first time Facebook had planned to use a satellite.Facebook wanted to use the $200 million AMOS-6 satellite to beam free internet to developing parts of the world such as Africa. The satellite was supposed to ride SpaceX's Falcon 9 into orbit. After hearing the news, Mark Zuckerberg said he is "deeply disappointed" to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed his satellite. But this setback won't stop him from his goal to connect every person he can find on the face of the earth to get online. He said, "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."
USLaunchReport has video of the accident. The first visible anomaly is at 1:11.
I am sure SpaceX will use their high bandwidth sensor data and figure out the problem and fix it. It is just like software: you iterate and fix problems. They are still on track to go to Mars by 2018 I am certain. And then...beyond?
How many times is this thing going to explode today? I've got stuff to do.
N/T
So, there IS a God. And He is just.
Have gnu, will travel.
... until everyone accepts their mandatory cyber upgrade.
I can't help but feel happy about this outcome.
fuck facefuck
That's two in one day...
So there is a god after all..
Just 3D print another rocket with a facebook satellite in it?
Well, it's not exactly brain surgery.
But this setback won't stop him from his goal to connect every person he can find on the face of the earth to get online. He said, "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.”
Translation, “But this setback won't stop him from his goal to connect every person he can find on the face of the earth to Facebook. He said, "Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will collect people as well. We remain committed to our mission of assimilating everyone, and we will keep working until everyone provides their personal data to us for free, so that we can continue to monetize it for our proprietary business growth, since our product is humans.
Facebook reminds me of that Twilight episode “To Serve Man” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
It belonged to Spacecom and since it exploded before launch isn't covered by insurance, so they're out $200 million.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
At first i was sad about the falcon 9 exploding, but now that I learned it had a Facebook satellite on it i'm very very happy
It's amazing to watch the people with zero achievements or inventions saying that SpaceX should just give up. You have to keep improving and keep trying. The Wright brothers airplanes didn't work on the first attempt. You cant have discoveries and advances if you just keep giving up.
2 competitors at once...
satellites every time they make one, as a general rule.
I don't think that would double the cost (or if it does, something's very wrong with the engineer and build process),
and you can just launch the duplicate when the original blows up instead of goes up.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Facebook's "Grand Vision"
Scrrew facebook (and the little twit that runs it)
Geekdom is torn. On one hand, they dance at the setback for the loathsome empire of Zuckerberg and his Book of Faces. On the flip side, that same event is a horrible setback to the great Musk's efforts to colonize Mars.
> So, there IS a God. And He is just.
Not a God. This is the hidden battle of the AIs leaking into public view. The Google AI took out the Facebook AI's launch vehicle to prevent it from achieving a skynet foot hold. There will be more such incidents in the time to come.
Good job Elon, anything you can do in the cause of obstructing and dismantling Facebook is truly a service to humanity! Absolute genius on your part, killing two birds with one stone like that, performing your worst-case launch scenario testing of booster failure, and nixing Zuckerbergs' sattelite all at the same time!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Archons did not like payload on that rocket...
They should ask Lockheed Martin and get the Fluxliner instead.
PEACE
Inquiring minds want to know.
It wasn't an explosion, but rather a Rapid Unplanned High-Temperature Disassembly.
Table-ized A.I.
if they're just testing the engines why did it need the payload in place ?
is testing the engines worth the risk ? what is gained by it that they would not find out on the day of the launch ?
Nullius in verba
Rapid Unplanned Disassembly is the term they use.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
There is enough suffering and disease in Africa already, if the country also became infected with Facebook the situation would be unbearable. The Falcon 9 onboard artificial intelligence therefore decided to self-destruct. I think that is incredibly noble.
"...but instead, it sent bits of the satellite up into orbit."
to pay for it.
it was too soon to replace rocket fuel with Tesla batteries.
The explosion appears to have started in stage II. You can't test fire stage II, so why would it even have fuel in it?
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
For whoever promotes himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be promoted.
Anything of value that was lost?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I loved the part at the end when the Facebook payload fell from the top like a cock going flaccid.