Zuma Satellite Reportedly Destroyed Following Sunday’s Launch By SpaceX

A satellite launched Sunday by SpaceX as part of a classified government mission reportedly failed to reach orbit and was destroyed, according the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

The satellite, named Zuma, was built by Northrop Grumman Corp. and reportedly cost billions. Officials told Reuters that the satellite is a total loss, likely to have broken apart or crashed into the sea. SpaceX, however, says its own equipment didn’t fail.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwellafter issued a statement Tuesday saying “after review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night. If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately. Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false. Due to the classified nature of the payload, no further comment is possible. Since the data reviewed so far indicates that no design, operational or other changes are needed, we do not anticipate any impact on the upcoming launch schedule.”

Northrop Grumman has declined to comment on the launch. So, details of the mission remain murky and likely won’t be cleared up until the mission is declassified.

Zuma was SpaceX’s first mission of 2018. You can watch SpaceX’s webcast of the mission here.

 

[Skotty]

Who knows what forces were at play here. Could have been any number of possibilities. Such is the nature of classified missions. He said not much she said not much with no evidence to back anything up.

 

[Graffi]

I still do not understand all this back and forth discussion.

It was a classified mission, with a classified satellite. What better way to hide it than to spread rumors or cause questions to be asked about the mission failure? Meanwhile it is probably continuing to successfully carry out its classified mission.

 

[Dennisj00]

Nothing to see here folks, keep moving!

 

[Grendal]

I broke off the discussion about the SpaceX statement pertaining to Zuma onto a separate thread.

Hopefully I didn't make this discussion disjointed...

 

[AZ Desert Driver]

I broke off the discussion about the SpaceX statement pertaining to Zuma onto a separate thread.

Hopefully I didn't make this discussion disjointed...

Thank you - The conversion was good for awhile, then got to be "pretzel logic". I learned some things about rocket launching and ejecting satellites that I never knew to even ask about. The thread was good for that educational purpose. I think it has run its course. Next topic..??

 

[ecarfan]

I think it has run its course. Next topic..??

Falcon Heavy - Elon's Roadster Demo - LC-39A !

We will never know for sure what happened to the Zuma mystery payload. But the conspiracy theorists will continue to discuss it endlessly...

 

[Routybouty]

Just saw this, not sure if its been posted:

SpaceX Customer Blames Northrop Grumman for Missing Satellite

Matt Desch, chief executive officer of satellite operator Iridium Communications Inc., said that as the launch contractor, Northrop Grumman deserves the blame for the loss last weekend of the satellite, which is presumed to have crashed into the ocean in the secretive mission code-named Zuma.

“This is a typical industry smear job on the ‘upstart’ trying to disrupt the launch industry,” Desch saidon Twitter Thursday in response to a news article. “SpaceX didn’t have a failure, Northrop Grumman did. Notice that no one in the media is interested in that story. SpaceX will pay the price as the one some will try to bring low.”

 

[Grendal]

And the mystery surrounding Zuma just gets deeper:

Pentagon Shuts Down Questions About Zuma, and Raises More Questions
Pentagon shuts down questions about Zuma, and raises more questions - SpaceNews.com

As the article mentions, this is just a very strange situation.

Funny enough. It almost makes the most sense if Zuma is working perfectly and all rumors that it isn't working is causing the odd behavior.

 

[Reciprocity]

Zuma backwards is amuz which sounds like amuse. Just saying.

 

[ecarfan]

And the mystery surrounding Zuma just gets deeper:
Pentagon Shuts Down Questions About Zuma, and Raises More Questions

From the article, quote:
———————————————————
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.

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.”
————————————————————

That is really a lot of BS. In my view, the likely explanation is that the military does not want to disclose to US taxpayers that their contractor screwed up and the billion dollar payload was lost. Telling a journalist to ask SpaceX about the launch, after SpaceX clearly stated days earlier that their part of the mission was nominal, is insulting.

 

[scaesare]

I wonder if this is a little quid pro quo from the Defense Department... perhaps they are not used to having a launch provider "tell it like it is" in such outright terms.

SpaceX's forthright response did hit the ball back in somebody's else's court to a degree...

 

[Reciprocity]

From the article, quote:
———————————————————
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.

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.”
————————————————————

That is really a lot of BS. In my view, the likely explanation is that the military does not want to disclose to US taxpayers that their contractor screwed up and the billion dollar payload was lost. Telling a journalist to ask SpaceX about the launch, after SpaceX clearly stated days earlier that their part of the mission was nominal, is insulting.

Maybe the reason they said to ask space X is that they know that space doesn't know anything about the payload or it's status and space X only knows their part was nominal and went as planned. Then again, there shouldn't be any reason for them to be so coy about the success or failure because unless it's a stealth satellite, can't it easily be tracked?

PS.. Isn't Dana white the dude that runs the UFC? Me thinks something is amiss.

 

[Electroman]

This is going to really infuriate SpaceX and Elon, and they might be forced to come up with more evidence about what the believe happened to the payload

 

[ICUDoc]

This is going to really infuriate SpaceX and Elon, and they might be forced to come up with more evidence about what the believe happened to the payload

I would think that even if you’re right, Spacex will still need to remain tight-lipped about it all...

 

[hacer]

Typically--like, almost always, and I'm not personally aware of any other method--separation is initiated by the launch vehicle mission sequencer in the vehicle's avionics bay. There's some automated commanding, some number of power/return lines, and some kind of telemetry required to do the thing (plus redundancy for those items). That logic is organizationally agnostic--it doesn't matter who builds what.

The only practical way you get around some level of involvement from the launch vehicle is if the payload (more likely) or payload adapter (less likely) has full, unaided capability to execute separation. Seems crazy to me, but who knows.

Except that the release command signals would normally also have sense signals making a kelvin connection on the adapter. Tellemetry of those sigals would prove that the release signal was given and arrived on the adapter ring. Given that, SpaceX can unequivocally say that their parts worked nominally.

 

[woof]

Let's assume, the payload did separate from the second stage. I believe at that point, both it and the second stage would be stable orbits, and neither wouldn't burn up in the atmosphere for quite a while (days/months) without additional burns forcing them down. So in order for the payload to have burned up so soon after launch, a deorbit burn would have been required from the payload itself.

Now, let's assume, the payload did NOT separate from the second stage. In order to deorbit to the correct location over the ocean and not over populated land, SpaceX needs to command the correct burn, based on the orientation and mass. Thus, If the payload is still connected they would have needed to perform a DIFFERENT burn than if it wasn't connected, in order to get both to burn up safely and not rain down parts over land.

In addition, if the payload was still connected, presumably some troubleshooting would have occurred to try to correct that, which would likely require a few additional orbits before the command was given to deorbit.

Since the second stage deorbited as planned, it would seem to me that the payload was delivered to orbit and separated as expected.

If the payload then subsequently burned up in the atmosphere so soon after separation, I believe it must have done so under it's own thrust.

 

[Reciprocity]

Zuma backwards is amuz which sounds like amuse. Just saying.

I'm pretty sure that the industrial military complex is just trolling all of us internet nerds.

 

[Grendal]

From the article, quote:
———————————————————
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.

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.”
————————————————————

That is really a lot of BS. In my view, the likely explanation is that the military does not want to disclose to US taxpayers that their contractor screwed up and the billion dollar payload was lost. Telling a journalist to ask SpaceX about the launch, after SpaceX clearly stated days earlier that their part of the mission was nominal, is insulting.

Oddly enough, what would their response be if Zuma was launched as expected, the payload was released as expected, it is currently functioning as expected, and a day later there is a rumor that circulates (not caused by secretive or planned means) which says the payload failed? Then some "unnamed sources" add to the confusion by trying to lay blame on SpaceX? In the meantime the payload is in orbit doing whatever it is/was supposed to do? How would this press conference have gone and how would those officials would have responded?

Let's go over this one more time.
SpaceX launched Zuma.
As far as SpaceX is concerned, everything went exactly as planned.
The next day rumors emerge that Zuma failed.
Later that night WSJ and Bloomberg post stories that the payload fell back to Earth along with the second stage.
SpaceX is flooded with questions from reporters. Finally Gwynne Shotwell puts out the statement saying SpaceX had no issues with the launch.
Evidence comes from many sources which give evidence that everything went as expected from SpaceX and that there was a payload in orbit.
Various people that are for and against SpaceX comment but do not necessarily have any inside information to justify their comments.
Officials give a press conference and do not comment on the launch except to say to ask SpaceX. SpaceX has given out their statement.

 

[Nikxice]

I'm pretty sure that the industrial military complex is just trolling all of us internet nerds.

Yep, they're just messin with us. Maybe someday we'll learn what Zuma's all about. Until then, I'll use an unauthorized acronym..... Zombielike Undisclosed Mystery Abort.... Pro tip: Don't use it around SpaceX, might get you a nastygram from Elon.

 

[RDoc]

Anyway, for DOD, NSA, CIA, et al, a billion dollars really is too little to get very excited about. Hardly worth mentioning.