A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its roughly $200 million Israeli communications satellite were destroyed Thursday morning when an explosion tore through a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, jolting Florida’s Space Coast and interrupting one of the most aggressive launch campaigns in the commercial space industry.

The blast occurred at 9:07 a.m. Eastern during preparations for a routine prelaunch engine firing, two days before the rocket was scheduled to carry the Amos-6 satellite into orbit. There were no injuries. SpaceX said in an initial account reported by Spaceflight Now that the anomaly originated near the upper-stage liquid-oxygen tank while propellants were being loaded, but the cause remained under investigation.

Video showed a fireball erupting from the rocket, followed by a succession of detonations and a towering column of black smoke. The satellite, already mounted atop the vehicle, fell to the pad and exploded several minutes later. ABC News reported that the force rattled buildings miles away, while emergency officials kept the public clear of the complex.

A test becomes a full mission loss

The Falcon 9 had been undergoing a static-fire test, a countdown rehearsal in which the first-stage engines are briefly ignited while the rocket remains restrained. The procedure is intended to verify the launch vehicle and ground systems before flight. SpaceX typically performs the test ahead of a mission, but on Thursday the customer’s payload remained attached—turning a ground accident into the loss of both rocket and spacecraft.

The satellite belonged to Space Communication Ltd. of Israel and was to be positioned in geostationary orbit after a launch scheduled for Saturday. Amos-6 was designed to deliver television, data and broadband services across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Guardian’s account of the accident placed the satellite’s value at about $200 million and described the mission as a major commercial assignment for SpaceX.

The immediate investigation will have to distinguish among the rocket, the payload interface and ground-support equipment. SpaceX identified the upper-stage oxygen area as the origin, but that location alone does not establish the initiating failure. Investigators will examine high-speed video, telemetry, pressure data, fueling records and fragments from a pad that continued to burn for hours.

Any conclusion will matter far beyond a single mission. Falcon 9 has become a central vehicle for commercial satellites, NASA cargo flights and the company’s plans to carry astronauts. Launch customers buy schedules as well as hardware, and uncertainty about the vehicle’s return to flight can ripple through insurance contracts, satellite fleets and government programs.

Facebook’s African broadband plan loses its spacecraft

Amos-6 also carried an unusually prominent technology partnership. Facebook had arranged with satellite operator Eutelsat to use much of the spacecraft’s broadband capacity to extend Internet access across parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The project formed part of Internet.org, Facebook’s effort to connect populations that remain beyond economical terrestrial networks.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was traveling in Africa when the satellite was lost. He said he was “deeply disappointed,” though he promised the company would continue pursuing other connectivity technologies. The Guardian reported Zuckerberg’s response and noted that the satellite was expected to support service to remote areas through small ground terminals.

The loss illustrates the vulnerability of satellite-based access plans. A communications spacecraft can cover enormous territory without laying fiber or building dense cellular networks, but it requires years of engineering, a costly launch and a functioning orbital asset. Replacing that capacity cannot happen on the timetable of an ordinary software project.

Wired reported that Facebook’s ambitions were set back but not eliminated: the company was simultaneously testing solar-powered aircraft and other systems intended to link underserved regions. Those alternatives, however, are experimental. Amos-6 was a near-term commercial satellite with a defined service plan.

SpaceX’s rapid cadence meets a hard stop

Before Thursday, SpaceX had been pressing toward a faster launch rate after demonstrating that it could land Falcon 9 first stages both on land and at sea. The company’s lower prices and backlog had increased competitive pressure on established launch providers. A pad accident now forces it to trade speed for forensic discipline.

The Falcon 9’s last in-flight failure occurred in June 2015, when a cargo mission to the International Space Station broke apart shortly after launch. SpaceX returned to flight six months later. Thursday’s explosion is different because it happened before ignition of the first-stage engines and involved the fueling sequence, but the previous recovery offers a measure of how long a careful investigation and corrective work can take.

Time’s initial report emphasized that the pad was clear of personnel, an important protection during hazardous propellant loading. The company said everyone was safe, but the destruction at Launch Complex 40 will require inspection and repair independent of any modifications to the rocket itself.

SpaceX has access to a separate launch complex under development at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, but shifting missions is not immediate. Each pad has specialized systems, regulatory requirements and customer-specific preparations. The accident therefore threatens both vehicle availability and physical launch capacity.

A commercial ecosystem absorbs the shock

Customers and investors will watch three questions: how quickly SpaceX identifies the initiating event, whether the failure is confined to ground operations, and how much damage the pad sustained. The answers will shape launch delays and determine whether insurers change terms for missions already booked.

For Spacecom, the blow is especially severe. Its satellite was central to a pending acquisition of the Israeli operator, and the loss introduces uncertainty about future capacity. For Eutelsat and Facebook, it removes the platform for an African broadband service they expected to begin in 2017. The Washington Post described the destroyed spacecraft as the centerpiece of one of Facebook’s most ambitious connectivity efforts.

The accident will also sharpen debate over mounting a satellite during static-fire testing. Leaving the payload off can reduce customer exposure but adds handling and schedule complexity. SpaceX’s procedures are designed for rapid operations; investigators must now determine whether any part of that approach contributed to the event.

Forbes reported that Zuckerberg framed the loss as a setback rather than an end to the mission of expanding access. The same distinction applies to SpaceX. The company retains a large order book and a rocket that has completed numerous successful flights. But until the cause is known and the launch system is cleared, Thursday’s fireball has halted the momentum on which its commercial strategy depends.