A top - secret military satellite , codenamedZuma , was launchedonboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Sunday evening . Although the launch ( as well as the reentry and landing ) of the rocket engine appeared to be a success , there are now rumors that something move awry and the classified artificial satellite is either lost or destroy .
BloombergandWall Street Journalhave both reported that anonymous US governance officials are claim the Zuma spacecraft mission has bomb , with one of the aides even lay claim the satellite and second - stage rocket salad cut down into the ocean .
However , there are also self-contradictory report card about what might have gone on . Peter B. de Selding , the editor in chief of Space Intel Report , alsotweeted yesterday : “ Zuma satellite … may be dead in electron orbit after separation from SpaceX Falcon 9 , sources say . Info brownout fork up any conclusion – launcher issue ? Satellite - only issue ? – insufferable to line . ”
SpaceXlive teem the launchon Sunday even with no mention of any problems . Elon Musk followed up by posting a stunninglong - photo photograph of the rocket ’s launching and landing place . Bloomberg suggests that thiscould indicate that the Zuma planet break todeploy correctly , intend the flaw may not with the launching organisation .
Much of the information about the Zuma planet is totally classified , including its aim , its intend scope , or which US agency contract it . This is part of the reason why its fate is now shrouded in mystery story .
SpaceX has launched other classified politics payloads in the past . In Spring 2017 , they plunge another"top secret " classified satellitefor the National Reconnaissance Office ( NRO ) , the US Government office in charge of intelligence information spy orbiter . Even though this launch was seemingly a success , info on the mission was slight on the ground .
Of naturally , all of this is rest hearsay without official confirmation . However , the primary parties take in the launch are keeping hush about die on .
" We do not annotate on mission of this nature , but as of mighty now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally , " a SpaceX spokesperson has toldBloomberg .
Northrop Grumman , the aerospace and United States Department of Defense technology ship’s company who built the satellite , also told theWall Street Journal : “ We can not comment on classified missions . ”
IFLScience will update this story if and when more selective information comes to igniter .
Update 2025-01-31 : SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell severalise theAssociated Pressthat the Falcon 9 rocket “ did everything aright ” and suggestion otherwise are “ categorically false . ”
