<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NASA says SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred Thursday morning. <a href="https://t.co/Bc7kNiq6E0">pic.twitter.com/Bc7kNiq6E0</a></p>&mdash; WESH 2 News (@WESH) <a href="https://twitter.com/WESH/status/771341206416613376">September 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
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RotRoh

Well, shit. Though I doubt there will be as thorough of an investigation since it was a test fire (which is meant to identify issues), chances are that did a ton of damage to the pad that's gonna take forever to fix.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Official statement from <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX">@SpaceX</a>: <a href="https://t.co/GxvH2E8401">pic.twitter.com/GxvH2E8401</a></p>&mdash; Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) <a href="https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/771352111657385984">September 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Loss of payload...ouch.

Two lost payloads in 1.5 years isn't going to help opinions of their reliability.

It SOUNDS like it may have been an issue with the ground equipment and not the rocket (not confirmed by official sources). That's not necessarily any better, but it's interesting if so.

I thought the satellite wasn't onboard?

It seems odd that they would be test firing it with the payload onboard. :shrug:

I wouldn't have thought it would be either, but apparently it was. :shrug:

Sadly, I've removed the "next launch" info from the OP. It'll probably be a while before there's anything to put in there.

Tight schedule. Taking the rocket back down and performing the mounting, putting it back up, two days away from launch while still checking all the systems just wasn't feasible.

Lesson learned. At a cost of $200m.

LMAO

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SpaceX rocket that exploded was supposed to take a Facebook satellite into space <a href="https://t.co/dELMsbvImv">https://t.co/dELMsbvImv</a> <a href="https://t.co/Sybd2WFtHd">pic.twitter.com/Sybd2WFtHd</a></p>&mdash; Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) <a href="https://twitter.com/Gizmodo/status/771354817935597568">September 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Elon Musk is having a HORRIBLE day!

Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA)
$202.99
(-$9.02)
(-4.26%)

As of 12:24 PM EDT. Market open.

Talk about bad timing...

http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/30/tech...use/index.html

I can't seem to access Gus Grissom's Facebook page.