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A classified satellite launched by SpaceX on Sunday may be experiencing a classified failure:
Later on Monday afternoon another space reporter, Peter B. de Selding, reported on Twitter that he too had been hearing about problems with the satellite. "Zuma satellite from @northropgrumman may be dead in orbit after separation from @SpaceX Falcon 9, sources say," de Selding tweeted. "Info blackout renders any conclusion - launcher issue? Satellite-only issue? — impossible to draw."
Update: SpaceX said the Falcon 9 rocket performed nominally, but unnamed sources reportedly told the Wall Street Journal that the payload did not separate from the Falcon 9 second stage and that both fell into the ocean:
An expensive, highly classified U.S. spy satellite is presumed to be a total loss after it failed to reach orbit atop a Space Exploration Technologies Corp. rocket on Sunday, according to industry and government officials. Lawmakers and congressional staffers from the Senate and the House have been briefed about the botched mission, some of the officials said. The secret payload—code-named Zuma and launched from Florida on board a Falcon 9 rocket—is believed to have plummeted back into the atmosphere, they said, because it didn't separate as planned from the upper part of the rocket.
The WSJ report has been disputed. Space-Track has catalogued the Zuma payload as USA 280, international designation 2018-001A, catalog number 43098, but that doesn't necessarily mean Zuma survived. CelesTrak lists the status as operational (search 43098 in NORAD Catalog Number field).
If the mission did fail, SpaceX could also blame Northrup Grumman for using their own payload adapter.
Also at CBS News, SpaceFlight Insider, Bloomberg, Popular Mechanics, CNBC, and USA Today.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Sulla on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:23PM (5 children)
If i had a new fancy expensive super secret spy satellite I would tell people its broken too. Super serious its broken definitely not watching you walk your dog at 123 evergreen terrace road, and not that I would know but you might want to get that mole on your shoulder looked at.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:39PM (1 child)
I guess you need better calibration procedures. The mole is on my butt.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:12PM
Are you saying we can literally see your asscrack from space?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:03PM (1 child)
It's difficult to hide a satellite. Impossible? Idk, I read a conspiratorial comment over on Ars...
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:27PM
It easy hide. Just park it behind another satellite. It works is babies!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Tuesday January 09 2018, @08:27PM
Actually I'd probably disguise is as some ordinary satellite, where some of the instruments "fail" directly after launch. The still working instruments give a perfect explanation of the satellites purpose, while the "failed" instruments were never there, but instead were placeholders for the secret instruments. And of course the official mission is carefully chosen so the satellite has to fly over the regions of interest for the secret mission.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.