According to Reuters, Spacecom could demand at least $50 million or a free flight from Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the destruction of its satellite during the blast at the SpaceX’s launch site at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The explosion of the unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a test on Thursday destroyed Spacecom’s Amos 6 satellite that Facebook will use to beam high-speed Internet to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The Amos 6 is estimated to be worth between $200 million and $300 million.
On Sunday, Spacecom officials said they also could collect as much as $205 million from the Israel Aerospace Industries, which built the Amos 6. The loss of the satellite is seen to bring a significant impact to Spacecom, whose equity has been expected to decrease by $30 million.
Spacecom demands $50 million or a free flight from SpaceX after Falcon 9 explosionreSYwgRJNn
— IndiaTodayTech (@IndiaTodayTech) September 5, 2016
SpaceX did not disclose what kind of insurance it had bought for the rocket and the insurance company it has partnered with. But it said it is now launching an investigation into the incident with the help of the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, the United States Air Force and other industry experts.
“SpaceX has begun the careful and deliberate process of understanding the causes and fixes for yesterday’s incident. We will continue to provide regular updates on our progress and findings, to the fullest extent we can share publicly,” SpaceX said in a statement.
“We deeply regret the loss of AMOS-6, and safely and reliably returning to flight to meet the demands of our customers is our chief priority. SpaceX’s business is robust, with approximately 70 missions on our manifest worth over $10 billion. In the aftermath of yesterday’s events, we are grateful for the continued support and unwavering confidence that our commercial customers as well as NASA and the United States Air Force have placed in us.”
Spacecom says SpaceX will give it $50 million or free launch for losing Amos-6 twTkyJh6lF
— SpaceNews (@SpaceNews_Inc) September 6, 2016
Facebook’s loss was estimated at $95 million with founder Mark Zuckerberg saying he was “deeply disappointed” by the explosion.
“As I’m here in Africa, I’m 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,” Zuckerberg said.
“Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well. We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided.”
