Video: Falcon 9 rocket explodes on the launch pad

September 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

Watch as a 23-story Falcon 9 rocket explodes Thursday morning during a countdown before a pre-launch engine hotfire test at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.

The video was captured a few miles from the launch pad by U.S. Launch Report and posted on YouTube.

The incident occurred at 9:07 a.m. EDT (1307 GMT), a few minutes before SpaceX was scheduled to conduct a “static fire” test of the rocket’s nine first stage Merlin 1D engines. The Falcon 9 rocket and its payload, the Amos 6 communications satellite, were destroyed.

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