An explosion on the launch site of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is shown in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Thursday (Reuters photo)

MIAMI — An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on Thursday on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida during a test, destroying it along with its payload, but causing no injuries, the private space firm said. This spring, the company landed its first big Pentagon job — an $83 million contract from the Air Force to launch a global positioning system satellite from Cape Canaveral in 2018. “Per standard operating procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries.”

Facebook was contracted to use the Amos-6 to provide broadband internet coverage for large parts of sub-Saharan Africa and other remote parts of the world as part of the social media giant’s Internet.org initiative.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodes during a routine firing test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. SpaceX say there were no injuries, but that an "anomaly" during the static fire test resulted in the loss of the rocket and the Israeli Amos-6 communication satellite it was carrying.