The first video of the SpaceX explosion shows just how massive and sudden it was

By Rebecca Harrington

2016-09-01T18:09:45.000Z

There's now video of the SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday morning.

The organization US Launch Report captured the incredible footage of the incident. You can see the explosion at 1:10:

The explosion occurred during a routine static test fire ahead of Saturday's planned (and now scrubbed) launch of Facebook's first satellite. A static test fire activates the rocket's engines without actually launching it into the air.

SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk said the explosion occurred as they were filling the rocket with propellant and "originated around the upper stage oxygen tank," which is made of aluminum-lithium alloy.

—SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 1, 2016

Thankfully, no people were near the rocket while the propellant was being loaded, so there were no injuries from the blast. The satellite the rocket was carrying was destroyed.

SpaceX and Musk both said they don't know the root cause of the explosion yet and are still investigating.

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Rebecca Harrington

Rebecca was an Executive Editor for Business Insider's news division, overseeing the Science, Speed news, Weekend news, LA news, Visual Features, and Voices of Color desks. She worked across teams to assign, coordinate, and edit breaking news, explainers, features, analysis, and investigations. She also developed guides, trainings, and coaching opportunities for the newsroom to get better every day.Rebecca started as a reporter on Tech Insider's science section in 2015, covering everything from solar energy and rocket launches to Zika, before moving to the news team during the summer of 2016 at the height of the presidential election and then running weekend coverage for 2 years. She's previously worked with the Politics, Military & Defense, and Video teams, and served as an editorial liaison with the product team that powers the CMS.She received her Master's degree from the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University, as well as a BS in Biology and a BA in Journalism from the University of Minnesota. Rebecca has also written for Popular Science, Scientific American, Scienceline, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the Minnesota Daily.ExpertiseBreaking news, legal analysis, criminal justice, police misconduct, public health, abortion, space, energy, visual features, extreme weather, White House history, voting rights, executive actionsPopular articlesJust don't call it 'climate change': What Republicans in Dallas can teach us about saving the planetWhat Buzz Aldrin was thinking when he left the moonHow the 25th Amendment works to remove a sitting presidentHurricane categories tell only part of the storyTRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS: Here's how they compare with Obama's, Bush's, and Clinton's

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