Facebook's Internet connectivity initiative suffers setback due to SpaceX explosion
Facebook's effort to bring internet access to sub-Saharan Africa suffered a serious setback Thursday morning when a SpaceX rocket exploded during a test.
The explosion simultaneously affected the plans of two of the most famous names in tech -- Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, and Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The rocket and the satellite were both lost due to "an anomaly," SpaceX confirmed, though the root cause of the explosion is not yet known.
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Facebook had leased capacity on the Amos-6 communications satellite that was aboard the Falcon 9 rocket as it performed a static test fire on a Cape Canaveral launchpad.
Facebook had planned for the satellite to provide internet coverage to parts of sub-Saharan Africa through its Internet.org initiative. This specific effort with Amos-6 was in partnership with Paris-based satellite fleet operator Eutelsat.
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The companies split the $95 million cost of the now-destroyed satellite that would be paid out over the next 5 years, according to Space News.
“We are not a satellite company,” Max Kamenetsky, director of connectivity deployments for Internet.org, said in March, according to Space News. “For us, the satellite was an investment where we saw a specific opportunity to deliver services to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It’s a first step for us to understand this market, which has not been served very well by operators.”
The project is a part of Facebook's long-term goal to "connect the world," not only with a social network but as an internet provider.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Zuckerberg said he was "... Deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent."
"Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well," Zuckerberg wrote. "We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided."
The satellite would have been integrated into Facebook's Express Wi-Fi program, which allows business owners to sell Wi-Fi via local internet service providers, with Facebook providing the software.
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Facebook's Express Wi-Fi is currently available in India and Africa.
During a visit to Lagos, Nigeria, this week, Zuckerberg touted the project while meeting with entrepreneurs, such as Rosemary Njoku, who has 3,000 Express Wi-Fi customers.
"This week, we're launching a satellite into space to enable more entrepreneurs across Africa to sell Express Wi-Fi and more people to access reliable internet," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post on August 30. "That means more connectivity and more opportunity for entrepreneurs like Rosemary everywhere."
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
