Failure of Falcon 9 in testing days before Israeli comm's satellite to be put into orbit... destroys satellite, coincidence? Here is a gif of the Falcon 9 experiencing a failure when testing a new pre launch procedure. Note that this is sped up and misleading. It was not an explosion but a much slower burn..  Here is the wikipedia page on the satellite that was to be launched. Some of my analysis ... my speculative opinion here What we know, Elon Musk owns SpaceX out right. He also had a relationship with Trump. Close enough to have a position at the White House. None of us know why this actually ended. Maybe they needed an excuse to get Musk in the White House for some White Hat planning; they used the guise of American Manufacturing.  It makes no sense that the satellite was loaded on the rocket for a test, maybe this is standard operating procedure EDIT: apparently this is normal. I don't know. But SpaceX has a fantastic history for getting its payloads into orbit safely. This one never made it off the ground. huh...