Author Topic: Pentagon Shuts Down Questions About Zuma, and Raises More Questions  (Read 437 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online Buster's Uncle

  • With community service, I
  • Ascend
  • *
  • Posts: 49462
  • €241
  • View Inventory
  • Send /Gift
  • Because there are times when people just need a cute puppy  Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur  A WONDERFUL concept, Unity - & a 1-way trip that cost 400 trillion & 40 yrs.  
  • AC2 is my instrument, my heart, as I play my song.
  • Planet tales writer Smilie Artist Custom Faction Modder AC2 Wiki contributor Downloads Contributor
    • View Profile
    • My Custom Factions
    • Awards
Pentagon Shuts Down Questions About Zuma, and Raises More Questions
Space.com
By Sandra Erwin, SpaceNews |  January 12, 2018 01:27pm ET



WASHINGTON — When a big-ticket military weapon development or procurement goes off the rails for any reason, the Pentagon as a rule does not deflect media questions to the contractor that the government hired to do the work.

So reporters at the Pentagon were shocked on Thursday when the Defense Department's top spokesperson Dana White not only refused to comment on the apparent failure of a secret military space mission codenamed Zuma, but also told a journalist to direct his questions to SpaceX.

"I would have to refer you to SpaceX, who conducted the launch," White told Bloomberg News reporter Tony Capaccio at a Pentagon briefing.

Capaccio repeatedly challenged White to explain why she would not answer questions. "This is a billion-dollar satellite. It's been four days. Was it a success or a failure? And what's the fate of the satellite?' he asked.



Dana White, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, and Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the Joint Staff director, brief the press at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Jan. 11, 2018. During the briefing, they referred questions about the Zuma mission to SpaceX.   Credit: DoD photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Amber I. Smith

 
Regardless of the sensitivity of a mission, the Pentagon would be expected to disclose some level of information such as whether an investigation is under way. And if in fact a billion-dollar payload was lost, even in a classified project, the government would have an obligation to account for a major taxpayer-funded loss.

White insisted that the "classified nature of all of this" made it impossible for her to respond to any queries.

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of operations for the Joint Staff, standing on the podium next to White, shut down the questioning. “I’m done. We're not going to be able to give you any more information," McKenzie shot back.

It is notable that White would refer questions to SpaceX, the launch provider. Northrop Grumman Corp, which supplied the payload and its adapter, has also refused to comment. SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell issued a statement Tuesday saying the Falcon 9's part of the mission went off as planned. "After review of all the data to data, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night," she said. And she noted that any reports that the rocket failed are "categorically false."

Preparations for SpaceX's upcoming launches remain unchanged, which suggests the company doesn't have concerns about its rocket's performance Sunday. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed industry and government officials, reported on Monday that the payload was "presumed to be a total loss after it failed to reach orbit."

White saying "go ask SpaceX" and SpaceX insisting the launch was successful only deepen the mystery.

Sources contacted by SpaceNews suggested that the Pentagon might be rightfully shutting down questions if it turns out that the Defense Department or the National Reconnaissance Office were not the customers for this mission. And was Zuma a satellite? Even that is not certain. Conceivably it could have been a spaceplane or some experimental vehicle launched by a defense contractor or maybe even the CIA. According to one source, the CIA would be expected to rely on the NRO for space missions "but from what I've heard has been known to do its own thing on occasion,” the source said. "My guess is that this was an experimental rather than operational payload. If it were operational, it would have been flown by ULA."


https://www.space.com/39374-pentagon-shuts-down-questions-about-zuma-and-raises-more-questions.html

 

* User

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

Select language:

* Community poll

SMAC v.4 SMAX v.2 (or previous versions)
-=-
24 (7%)
XP Compatibility patch
-=-
9 (2%)
Gog version for Windows
-=-
103 (32%)
Scient (unofficial) patch
-=-
40 (12%)
Kyrub's latest patch
-=-
14 (4%)
Yitzi's latest patch
-=-
89 (28%)
AC for Mac
-=-
3 (0%)
AC for Linux
-=-
6 (1%)
Gog version for Mac
-=-
10 (3%)
No patch
-=-
16 (5%)
Total Members Voted: 314
AC2 Wiki Logo
-click pic for wik-

* Random quote

The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert where a man is never alone, for he can feel life quivering all about him. The sea is only a receptacle for all the prodigious, supernatural things that exist inside it; it is only movement and love; it is the living infinite.
~Jules Verne ’20,000 Leagues Under The Sea’, Datalinks

* Select your theme

*
Templates: 5: index (default), PortaMx/Mainindex (default), PortaMx/Frames (default), Display (default), GenericControls (default).
Sub templates: 8: init, html_above, body_above, portamx_above, main, portamx_below, body_below, html_below.
Language files: 4: index+Modifications.english (default), TopicRating/.english (default), PortaMx/PortaMx.english (default), OharaYTEmbed.english (default).
Style sheets: 0: .
Files included: 45 - 1228KB. (show)
Queries used: 35.

[Show Queries]