SpaceX explosion occurred with engines off: Musk

Hong Kong

SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk called the Falcon 9 explosion its most perplexing failure in 14 years, deepening the mystery surrounding the loss of the satellite-bearing rocket on its launchpad last week.

US investigators are looking into why the Falcon 9 rocket, developed by Mr Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp, blew up on Sept 1 before a scheduled test launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The explosion incinerated a satellite that Facebook Inc had planned to use to beam Internet access across parts of Africa, and set launches back across the world.