Posted on 01/08/2018 4:28:29 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Last night at 8:00 p.m. EST, SpaceX conducted its first launch of the year, carrying a classified spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. government code-named "Zuma." Now reports are circulating that the Zuma spacecraft might have been lost following the launch.
Peter B. de Selding, a spaceflight reporter for Space Intel Report, first tweeted that sources suggested to him that the satellite "may be dead in orbit after separation."
...Popular Mechanics has reached out to both SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for comment about the fate of the satellite. Northrop did not immediately reply, but a SpaceX spokesperson issued the following statement: "We do not comment on missions of this nature; but as of right now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally."
The Falcon 9 rocket successfully conducted a first stage landing after the Zuma launch, and Elon Musk tweeted images of the launch earlier today. Both would seem to suggest that Falcon 9 performed nominally, as SpaceX has said.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Sounds like Zuma failed to zoom.
Somehow this sounds someway related to the odd “faring issues” that delayed the launch.
Or maybe that’s what ‘they’ want you to think...
...may be dead in orbit after separation...
Don’t be too quick to decide that. I’ve seen them come back to life.
Aren’t top secret spy satellites supposed to be stealthy and quiet? Maybe it’s just laying low for a while to trick us into thinking it was Loser.
Yes, it could be misinformation. SpaceX has indicated that their hardware worked as planned.
AngoSat did just recently.
There are so many backups on satellites that I find this hard to believe. If it exploded then maybe, but many many many small transmitters have their own small power supply that they would be hearing telemetry from some of them. So, grain of salt time.
p
Sounds like a good cover story for a top secret payload to me...
If it’s secret, maybe that’s why there’s a ‘blackout’ and everything is fine.
But, it does involve Musk, so it’s got that going against it.
Then there was the Israeli load that incinerated on the pad.
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Sounds like deep cover to me.
The SV has to remain dormant to make detection of its position difficult.
Note that you havent heard any of this crap from the hobby “listener” community.
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>> “Aren’t top secret spy satellites supposed to be stealthy and quiet?” <<
We have more than 50 of them up there that make no noise ‘most’ of the time.
When we need them, all you’ll pick up is the “hand shake” before they begin to alter their position.
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All I need to know is who is reporting that it’s dead. If it’s CNN or MSNBC, then we know what’s going on.
These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
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