The almost 21-ton robot vessel, also known as the A.T.V., will be the largest payload ever launched by Europe's largest rocket, a beefed-up version of the Ariane 5 built by the commercial launch company Arianespace.
An accompanying command ship lost contact with the rocket several minutes later, and the rocket was believed to have fallen into the ocean about 2,600 miles from the launching site, the Sea Launch Company of Long Beach, Calif, said.
The company is in negotiation with SpaceX – the private US launch company controlled by software billionaire Elon Musk – which was recently awarded a $1bn contract by Nasa to ferry supplies to the International Space Station.
Ukrainian launch company Yuzhnoye is working to solve the problem, but the launch may be delayed by as much as a month.
"This is a giant step toward being a launch company," says Ellis. "And it's aligned with the long-term vision of one day printing on Mars".
On Friday morning they will launch company profile pages that partly serve as fact sheets for about 160,000 companies and partly serve to reveal the connections that members have with them.
