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Elon Musk counts cost of SpaceX rocket explosion and SolarCity demands

Last updated: 09:24 02 Sep 2016 EDT, First published: 04:24 02 Sep 2016 EDT

Elon Musk
He's had a bad day

Electric vehicle and space travel visionary Elon Musk reportedly took a near US$800mln hit in a single day.

It comes after an explosion at a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, as his SpaceX commercial rocketship was due to deliver a communications satellite for internet.org, the pet project of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

On the same day Musk was tapped for some US$489mln as collateral for another of his companies, SolarCity – the renewable power generator he is currently pushing to merge with Tesla.

As bad a day at the office losing an US$800mln fortune sounds, in reality it puts a mere dent in Musk's estimated US$8.3bn wealth.

The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket mission aimed to place a satellite over the equator to expand communications in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

One of the company’s uncrewed Falcon 9 rockets and a satellite were destroyed in an explosion on a launch pad in Florida.

The incident at Cape Canaveral Air Force base marks the second time in just over a year that the company has lost one of its rockets, which are far cheaper to operate than those of United Launch Alliance, its main rival for prestigious US government business.

On Thursday, Shares of Musk's electric car maker, Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA), closed 5.3% lower at $200.77 on Thursday and were on track for worst week since the UK’s Brexit poll.

Meanwhile, at SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY), where Musk is chairman, shares ended down 9.1% at $18.78.

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