Zuma (space mission)
| Zuma | |
|---|---|
| Country: |
 United States
|
| Organization: | (state) |
| COSPAR designation : | 2018-001A |
| NORAD / SCN-ID : | 43098 |
| Mission dates | |
| Start date: | January 8, 2018 |
| Starting place: | Cape Canaveral LC-40 |
| Launcher: | Falcon 9 |
| Orbit data | |
| Origin of coordinates: | earth |
| Orbit inclination : | approx. 50-51 ° |
| General spacecraft data | |
| Manufacturer: | Northrop Grumman |
Zuma and Mission 1390 are code names for a space mission with a secret purpose on behalf of the US government . A cargo from the armaments company Northrop Grumman , according to the technology magazine Wired, a satellite , was transported into near-earth space on January 8, 2018 .
Preparations and start
In 2015, Northrop Grumman commissioned the US space company SpaceX with the transport by Falcon 9 rocket . In April 2017, the starting period was changed to 1–30. November of the same year. After the rocket had already been erected on ramp 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida , the launch was postponed for an indefinite period and the rocket was removed from the ramp again. SpaceX cited possible problems with the payload fairing as the reason for this , which it found during an inspection for another customer.
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On January 8, 2018 at 1:00 a.m. ( UTC ), the take-off finally took place from ramp 40 of the neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station . The official (live) reporting ended with the information that the payload fairing had been dropped from the second rocket stage and with the transmission of the landing of the first stage on Landing Zone 1 of Cape Canaveral. Northrop Grumman confirmed that the payload is on its way into low earth orbit . At around 3:15 a.m. (UTC), a conspicuous object was sighted over Sudan , which was believed to be the second stage of the Falcon rocket, shortly before its planned crash in the southern Indian Ocean .
SpaceX stated that the rocket had worked perfectly ( "Falcon 9 performed nominally" ; "Falcon 9 did everything correctly" ) and that the next Falcon 9 launches would take place as planned. It was therefore the 45th successful launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, the 21st successful landing of the first stage and the first of around 30 planned SpaceX missions in 2018. The first stage of the rocket (hull number 1043) was launched on 22 May 2018 successfully reused for the launch of five Iridium Next satellites and GRACE-FO .
The National Reconnaissance Office , responsible for the US military satellite program, denied responsibility for Zuma. The total cost of the mission was to 3.5 billion US dollars estimated.
Rumors of a failure
On the day of the launch, rumors were circulating on the Internet that the mission had failed. The following day, the media reported, citing unnamed US government officials, that there had been a malfunction in the second stage rocket or a problem with launching the payload into orbit; it fell into the sea or burned up together with the second stage. Various observers indicated that the payload adapter connecting the cargo to the second stage was built by Northrop Grumman. It is therefore possible that the launch for which SpaceX was responsible was successful, but that the Zuma cargo then did not separate from the rocket.
The commander of the US Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center announced two weeks after the launch that the analysis of the available data had given no reason to restrict the certification of the Falcon 9 for military missions. In the media this was seen as a confirmation of a successful rocket launch, insofar as it was the responsibility of SpaceX.
The Wall Street Journal reported in April 2018, citing an unnamed source, "Government and (aerospace) industry experts" had provisionally concluded that the payload did not differ from the second due to an adapter malfunction Level. Northrop Grumman bought the adapter from a supplier and reworked it.
Web links
- Zuma Mission : Youtube video of the rocket launch, SpaceX
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Chris Gebhardt: SpaceX conducts Sunday launch of clandestine Zuma satellite , nasaspaceflight.com, January 8, 2018.
- ↑ a b c Marco Langbroek: Fuel dump of Zuma's Falcon 9 Upper Stage observed by a Dutch pilot over east Africa (and rumors that Zuma failed) , sattrackcam.blogspot.de, January 9, 2018.
- ↑ Robin Seemangal: SpaceX's top secret Zuma mission set to launch , Wired , November 16, 2017, accessed November 18, 2017.
- ↑ a b Stephen Clark: SpaceX kicks off ambitious 2018 schedule with launch for US government , Spaceflight Now, January 8, 2018.
- ↑ Twitter message from Chris Bergin, Nasaspaceflight.com, November 18, 2017, accessed November 22. 2017
- ↑ Stephen Clark: Test-firing at repaired launch pad clears way for SpaceX cargo flight next week , spaceflightnow.com, December 6, 2017.
- ↑ Zuma Mission : Youtube video of the rocket launch, SpaceX, January 8, 2018.
- ↑ Tariq Malik: Strange Sky Spiral May Come from Secretive SpaceX Zuma Launch , space.com, January 9, 2018.
- ↑ a b Loren Grush: Did SpaceX's secret Zuma mission actually fail? . The Verge, January 9, 2018.
- ^ A b Sarah Lewin: SpaceX Says Falcon 9 Rocket Performed as Expected During Zuma Launch . Space.com, January 9, 2018.
- ↑ Gunter Krebs: Orbital Launches of 2018. In: Gunter's Space Page. May 31, 2018, accessed June 1, 2018 .
- ↑ Loren Grush: SpaceX's mysterious Zuma launch is postponed indefinitely , The Verge , November 17, 2017, accessed November 18, 2017.
- ↑ a b SN First Up. In: Space News. April 9, 2018, Retrieved April 9, 2018 .
- ^ Katherine Hignett: Elon Musk's SpaceX Not the Cause of Zuma Secret Satellite Mission Failure, Experts Suggest . Newsweek , Jan. 11, 2018.
- ^ Anthony Capaccio: SpaceX Keeps US Air Force's Confidence After Satellite's Loss . Bloomberg, January 22, 2018.
- ↑ Rachel Becker: The Air Force is sticking by SpaceX after the Zuma mission . The Verge, January 22, 2018.
- ↑ Samantha Masunaga: Zuma satellite plunged after SpaceX launch because of Northrop Grumman errors, report says. In: Los Angeles Times. April 9, 2018, Retrieved April 9, 2018 .