Video shows the moment SpaceX rocket exploded on launchpad

Dramatic footage shows the moment a SpaceX rocket exploded into a fireball during a test launch today.

The Falcon 9 was preparing to send Facebook’s first satellite into space on Saturday, but an ‘anomaly’ on the launchpad caused a massive explosion which rocked buildings from miles away.

Footage from the blast at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, next to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was captured on a livestream.

It shows the highly flammable rocket fuel turn the spacecraft into a shaft of flames which was soon so gutted that its blackened frame was visible.

Private company SpaceX hopes to send a mission to Mars in the near future, pioneering affordable space travel and reusable rockets in the meantime.