According to several sources in the USA, the top secret satellite, which even the government agency responsible for it is not known, was lost after it failed to detach from the upper stage of the Falcon 9 launcher, and fell with it into the atmosphere. SpaceX in response: "Currently, an examination of the data indicates that the Falcon 9 functioned nominally."
Update, 01.09.18, 16:30: The article has been updated to include the response of Gavin Shotwell, the president of SpaceX and the company's chief operating officer, according to which the Falcon 9 performed well
What is the fate of the secret satellite with the code name "Zuma", which SpaceX a routine Early Monday morning via the Falcon 9 launcher? According to several reports in the US, the satellite may not have entered orbit around the Earth and fell back to Earth, but the source of the malfunction is still unclear.
according to A report in the Wall Street Journal, citing industry and US government sources, the satellite burned up in the atmosphere after failing to detach from the upper stage of the Falcon 9. The report also notes that the cost of the satellite is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Another Bloomberg report indicates that the upper stage of the launcher is the one that failed, according to a government official and two congressional aides who spoke on condition of anonymity. Reuters news agency She reported that an investigation has been opened to examine the circumstances of the incident, and that there are no signs of deliberate sabotage of the satellite.
A spokesman for the SpaceX company gave a concise response to the reports: "We do not respond to missions of this type, but an examination of the information as of now indicates that the Falcon 9 functioned nominally." Gavin Shotwell, president of SpaceX and chief operating officer of the company, published the following message today – “For the sake of clarity: after reviewing all the information so far, Falcon 9 did everything correctly Sunday evening [US time, AK]. If we or others discover something different upon further inspection, we will report it immediately. Published information that contradicts this announcement is categorically incorrect. Due to the confidential nature of the cargo, no further response is possible."
"Since the information examined so far does not indicate any need for a change in design, activity or other changes, we do not expect any harm to the upcoming launch schedule. The heavy Falcon was therefore transferred to launch LC-39A for a static combustion test later this week, and the maiden flight will take place shortly thereafter. Also, we are preparing to launch Falcon 9 for [the company] SES and the government of Luxembourg from [the launch site] SLC-40 in three weeks."
As reported on the science website, SpaceX's Falcon 9 launcher took off yesterday (January 8.1) at 03:00 am (Israel time) from the Cape Canaveral Air Space Base in Florida. Yesterday's launch was carried out after it was originally supposed to take place in November of last year, but was postponed due to concerns about a malfunction in the rocket's payload fairing, a problem that has since been resolved according to SpaceX. The first stages of the launch were transmitted live And they were successfully completed - the Falcon 9 took off after the launch, the first stage of the launcher detached from the upper stage and then landed on a land pad at Cape Canaveral.
The company then stopped the live broadcast, and did not transmit footage of the final part of the launch, in which the upper rocket stage was supposed to put Zuma into orbit around the Earth. The company has already done this in previous secret cargo launches, but Space did not confirm after the launch that the satellite did enter orbit successfully. As time passed, more and more reports and rumors were raised about the fate of the secret satellite.
Zuma is one of the most secret satellites launched in the US in recent years, as not only is its nature and purpose unknown, but even the government agency or military arm responsible for it is unknown.
The only thing that is known for sure about the satellite is that it was built by the defense and space giant Northrop Grumman. A spokesman for Northrop Grumman did not provide details about the satellite or its fate, saying only: "We cannot respond to confidential missions."
As mentioned, the reports in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg differ in their wording, with according to the first "the satellite failed to separate from the upper stage", and according to the second, it was the upper stage that failed. The quoted sources did not provide further details regarding the source of the malfunction, and it is not clear how exactly this coincides with SpaceX's announcement, according to which the launcher operated as expected.
One option raised by מספר reports, is that the malfunction occurred in the "payload adapter" (payload adapter) of the launcher, which is responsible for disconnecting the launched payload from the upper stage of the launcher, after entering orbit around the Earth. SpaceX is the one that usually provides the adapter, but in the current case, So according to the wired website, the adapter was provided by Northrop Grumman. If some malfunction occurred in the adapter, and as a result the satellite did not detach from the upper stage (which is still uncertain and there is no official confirmation), then the malfunction is not necessarily related to the Falcon 9, which explains SpaceX's response that the launcher functioned well.
If the malfunction that caused the loss of the satellite did happen in the upper stage of the Falcon 9, as reported by Bloomberg, and as mentioned, SpaceX completely denies, it is very likely that the company would have had to immediately suspend its activities until the investigation of the malfunction was completed and conclusions drawn from it, as it did after the two previous malfunctions experienced - The explosion of the Falcon 9 During the launch in 2015, andBlast the launcher on the ground Together with the Amos 6 satellite in 2016.
However, as things stand now and according to Gavin Shotwell's announcement, SpaceX has not frozen its flight schedule, andPreparations continue For the next launch of the SES-16/GovSat-1 satellite. In addition, its new and highly anticipated launcher, The heavy falcon, whose maiden flight is scheduled for the end of this month, raised Today, therefore, the launch is at the Kennedy Space Center, in preparation for a static combustion experiment that should take place this week.
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Regret. If they wanted secrecy they would say a satellite for school experiments
lover
Wouldn't it be simpler not to tell at all that there is such a satellite? I guess there are a lot of launches that put up satellites that we don't know about.
In my opinion
The satellite is not lost, but they prefer to think that it is gone.
Is it possible that the satellite is related to North Korea?
It is said that the cost of this secret satellite is estimated at billions of dollars. Let's assume that it is about 2-3 billion. In my estimation, most of the cost of the satellite is the design and software, not the hardware(!). It can also be estimated that the hardware cost alone is about a quarter (and maybe even less) of the overall cost. At the same time, even in rebuilding the satellite there are planning costs, although much less than the costs of planning the first satellite. According to my estimate, about a quarter of them. According to these assumptions, the cost of rebuilding this secret satellite may be about half of the production costs of the original satellite, that is, about 1.0-1.5 billion dollars.
To Green, thank you very much 🙂
I have every hope that the decision-making processes in the American government and the unknown agency that launched this satellite are a little more successful than those of the Israeli government, and that they will decide to produce it again without lingering for years in endless bureaucracy, as demonstrated here with the busy Amos 6.
Elisef God bless you, it's fun to read you, it's rare these days to find an accurate and reliable article on space issues.