In an early-morning explosion at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX's rocket went up in flames on the launchpad and took down with it one of Facebook's most ambitious project as well. The rocket that was destroyed on Thursday was carrying Facebook's AMOS-6 satellite that would have been used to bring internet access to developing countries.

Last year, Mark Zuckerberg had expressed his excitement to use the satellite to make broadband connectivity accessible in the most far-flung regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 84 million people use Facebook in the region.

The company released a statement saying, "SpaceX can confirm that in preparation for today's static fire, there was an anomaly on the pad resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its payload. Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries."