(Bloomberg) -- A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded inFlorida, marking the second loss of a spacecraft by Elon Musk’sventure in a little more than a year and hobbling an effort byFacebook Inc. to spread internet access in Africa.

The incident occurred Thursday at Cape CanaveralAir Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 as SpaceX preparedfor Saturday’s launch of Amos-6, an Israeli communicationssatellite. The explosion happened as the rocket was beingfueled before a test of its engines. Both the Falcon 9 rocket andthe satellite were destroyed.

“Loss of Falcon vehicle today during propellant fill operation,”Musk said in a tweet. “Originated around upper stage oxygen tank.Cause still unknown. More soon.”

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said he was“deeply disappointed” by the failure.

'Anomaly on the pad'

SpaceX blamed an “anomaly on the pad resulting in the loss of thevehicle and its payload” in an e-mailed statement. “Per standardprocedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries.”

The blast, which occurred shortly after 9 a.m. local time duringa test firing of the rocket’s engines, left a plume of thick blacksmoke and rattled windows in buildings miles away from the launchpad, according to Twitter posts. It was a reminder of the danger ofspace flight, which relies on controlled explosions to powerpayloads to orbit.

Israeli satellite operator Space Communication Ltd. tumbled 8.9percent to 39.08 shekels at the close in Tel Aviv, the biggest dropin nine months. The successful launch of the Amos 6 satellite was acondition of the company’s $285 million sale to a Beijing XinweiGroup unit, according to an Aug. 24 filing to the Tel Aviv stockmarket.

Satellites are insured

“The deal will either be canceled or the price will be reduced,”said Meir Slater, head of research at Bank of Jerusalem. “Themajority of the company’s value is tied to Amos 2 and Amos 6. Thesesatellites are insured, so the bondholders are covered, but interms of the shareholders, they lose out because any damage done tothe satellites means a loss of customers such as Facebook.”

The destroyed satellite was intended to beam internet service tosub-Saharan Africa as part of a collaboration between Facebook andEutelsat to connect people in remote parts ofthe world, Zuckerberg wrote in an Oct. 5 post. The AMOS-6 was tocover large parts of West, East and Southern Africa, Zuckerbergsaid.

“We’re going to work with local partners across these regions tohelp communities begin accessing internet services provided throughsatellite,” he said in the post.

The executive is currently on his first trip to sub-SaharanAfrica, where he has been meeting with entrepreneurs and appdevelopers in Nigeria. Facebook didn’t immediately respond to arequest for comment.

Shaken up the space industry

Saturday’s launch was to be the ninth of the year for Space ExplorationTechnologies Corp., which had settled into a steady tempo offlights following a June 2015 accident that grounded its rocketsfor six months. That failure was linked to a two-foot-long,inch-thick strut that snapped in a liquid oxygen tank.

Musk’s Hawthorne, California-based company has shaken up thespace industry by introducing cost competition and successfullylanding rocket boosters to be reused. It has won contracts withNASA to ferry cargo and crew to the International Space Station andagreements with commercial satellite companies to send satellitesinto orbit.

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