An explosion erupted during a SpaceX
fueling operation at its launch site in Florida around 9:07 a.m.
Eastern Time this morning, company officials and local authorities said.
SpaceX
was in the process of conducting a fueling test on Launch Pad 40 at
Cape Canaveral when the incident occurred, an engineer at Kennedy Space Center told ABC News.
The
explosion happened "in preparation for today's static fire," which
resulted in "the loss of the vehicle and its payload," SpaceX said in a
statement.
The explosion was felt around the facility and a mushroom cloud could be seen over the launch site, the engineer told ABC News.
Video from the scene showed smoldering infrastructure.
There
were no injuries as a result of the explosion, the Brevard County
Emergency Management Office told ABC News. The office tweeted that
"there is NO threat to general public from catastrophic abort during
static test fire at SpaceX launch pad at [Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station] this morning."
Brian Purtell, a spokesman for the Air
Force's 45th Space Wing, which controls Cape Canaveral's space
operations, said that personnel were being evacuated from the facility."Once we determine everybody is out of there, then we can go in when it's safe to kind of determine what happened," Purtell said, noting that SpaceX had a scheduled launch for early Saturday morning.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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