SpaceX Falcon 9 Explosion Video, Pictures From Cape Canaveral, Florida

UPDATED: 1:43 p.m. EDT — Video footage from Thursday morning's explosion of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket provides a closer look at what the aerospace company has called a "static test fire anomaly," which is being blamed for the fiery mishap in Florida.

About 10 minutes were cut from the footage, according to the description of the YouTube video that was posted by US Launch Report, which describes itself in part as "a US disabled veteran run, non profit video production company who's [sic] mission is to bring other disabled US Veterans to witness a launch, experience US Space History."

Shortly before the video was released, the founder of SpaceX provided some insight about the company's Falcon 9 rocket explosion Thursday. Elon Musk tweeted that the rocket was undergoing a "propellant fill operation." Aside from that, there was still more to be learned about exactly went wrong, he said.

UPDATED: 1:02 p.m. EDT — Facebook has confirmed that its satellite it intended to launch into space via SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was destroyed Thursday morning in an explosion during a launch test.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg penned a post expressing his disappointment with the latest development in the social media company's attempt to expand into space.

UPDATED: 11:33 a.m. EDT — As more photos and video began to emerge from the fiery and smoky scene Thursday morning at Cape Canaveral after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson offered his reassurances to the aerospace company in the wake of the apparent setback to its space program.

The Cape Canaveral Air Force also offered an official statement cautioning drivers from trying to access the roads leading to the launch site as it responds to the explosion and its aftermath.

Original story:

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket test launch Thursday morning ended in multiple fiery explosions, according to reports circulating across social media. Twitter users who said they are near the southern Florida launch site reported seeing debris falling from the sky and buildings shaking in the aftermath.

Local emergency management officials characterized the event as a "static test fire" that prompted a "catastrophic abort" at the launch pad near the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, where NASA conducts its rocket launches.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.

Photos and video show heavy plumes of dark smoke rising into the sky at SpaceX's rocket launching facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The heavy smoke that could reportedly be seen for miles was captured on a radar scanner, an indication of how powerful the explosion seems to be.

SpaceX's Twitter feed was noticeably void Thursday morning of any reference to the explosion and an attempt by ABC News to contact a company spokesperson for was unsuccessful.

However, the California-based company did eventually issue a brief statement explaining what went wrong.

A local official who does not work at the space center told news outlet Florida Today that the explosion caught him and his staff off guard.

"We were sitting here and all of a sudden it sounded like a sonic boom and the building started to shake," Denny Watkins, of the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce, said. "There were a couple of minor booms after that and then we went outside and saw the smoke plume. It was a well-defined plume, not like a controlled burn."

One local resident told the Orlando Sentinel he assumed it was a normal launch.

"It sounds as if a rocket had just gone up," David Turner, who lives in the town of Edgewater, said. "I walked outside thinking it was going off tomorrow. I came back in and onto my computer and found out what happened."

SpaceX was preparing for the scheduled Falcon 9 rocket to launch a Facebook satellite into orbit on Saturday, as Nature World News reported.

"This is just one of the innovations we're working on to achieve our mission with internet.org. Connectivity changes lives and communities," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote last year. "We're going to keep working to connect the entire world -- even if that means looking beyond our planet."