SpaceX Launching Top-Secret Zuma Satellite for US Government This Week

[Buster's Uncle]

SpaceX Launching Top-Secret Zuma Satellite for US Government This Week
Space.com
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer |  January 2, 2018 03:40pm ET




The mysterious Zuma payload sits atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A in November 2017. Liftoff is currently scheduled for Jan. 5, 2018.  Credit: SpaceX

 

The wait is almost over for the mysterious Zuma spacecraft.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch Zuma, a top-secret U.S. government satellite, between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. EDT Friday (Jan. 5; 0100 to 0300 GMT Jan. 6) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, according to Air Force officials.


The liftoff was originally planned for mid-November, but SpaceX pushed the launch date back to study data from a recent payload-fairing test performed for another customer. (The payload fairing is the nose cone that protects a spacecraft during liftoff.)

It's unclear what Zuma will do once it's aloft; the satellite and its mission are shrouded in mystery. Pretty much all we know is Zuma's vague destination: somewhere in low-Earth orbit.

Friday's action will also include a landing attempt by the first stage of the two-stage Falcon 9, which will come back to Earth at Landing Zone 1, a SpaceX facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next door to KSC.

To date, SpaceX has landed Falcon 9 boosters 20 times and reflown used first stages five times. Such activities are part of the company's push to develop fully reusable rockets and spacecraft, an advance that company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said will slash the cost of spaceflight.

Zuma will lift off from KSC's historic Pad 39A, which once hosted space shuttle and Apollo moon mission launches. In 2014, SpaceX signed a 20-year lease to use the launch complex.


https://www.space.com/39257-spacex-secret-zuma-mission-launching-soon.html