SpaceX News

[KitemanSA]

What make ANYONE think it is “lost”. Gone stealth, maybe. But lost?

[hanelyp]

Another SpaceX booster "failure"

This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02 ... ts-rocket/

[jnaujok]

You guys did see the quotes (") around the word "losing", right?

It was meant sarcastically, because I don't believe the Zuma payload was lost or failed. The fact that there has been no federal-law mandated mishap investigation led by NASA, required when any space vehicle or launch is lost, seems to back that up. The fact that another launch happens only three weeks later is even more telling.

Clearly the entire fiasco with the Zuma launch was an attempt by "unnamed sources" at Northrup Grumman to give SpaceX a black eye, when they knew that SpaceX couldn't say anything, and that no defense department or government agency rep would say anything about a classified satellite performing a classified mission.

The sniping by ULA to keep their nearly half-billion dollar per launch gravy train rolling is beginning to get tiresome.

With the safe, soft landing of the B1032 core, I posted a quip to a friend of mine that ULA's comment will probably be, "SpaceX Fails at Crash Landing Booster!"

[Skipjack]

The fact that there has been no federal-law mandated mishap investigation led by NASA, required when any space vehicle or launch is lost, seems to back that up.

This was not a NASA payload. It was a DOD payload. So I do not think that NASA would be investigating this. There was a congressional hearing on the issue, if I am not mistaken.

The fact that another launch happens only three weeks later is even more telling.

That was because SpaceX, the DOD and others looked at the flight data from SpaceX and determined that the rocket fulfilled it's purpose. From all we know, it looks like Zuma failed to separate from the payload adapter, which was provided by Grumman.

[Maui]

Yeah, I’m sure we all got the joke (was a good one).

At this point, it’s anybody’s guess as to what, if anything, happened to Zuma. But I agree it now seems clear that if something did go wrong, SpaceX was not at fault. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t an open question in the days immediately afterward, tho.

Can’t believe after six years, we’re finally under T-2days for Falcon Heavy!

[ladajo]

It was a DOD payload

???

[paperburn1]

It was a DOD payload

???

Due to the orbital inclination and suggested height of orbit it has been rumored that it is a hybrid optical /radar satellite to track shipping . So it must be a DOD bird. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Personally I still believe it was a technology demonstrator but what do I know

[ladajo]

I guess I was more so pointing out what you already know, in public, it is supposition and assumptions deciding who owns it, what is was, and its fate.

Personally, I think the biggest clue as to its fate is the lack of a track in the catalog. While initially posted for launch, no data was collected to post anything other than something went up, and then subsequently went away, with no stable orbit determined. Thus no 2 line.

Meh. I think you guys are wasting your time worrying about it. Those who know, know, those who don't, guess.

In any event, tomorrow looks to be shaping up as a Non-Boring Day. (See what I did there???)

[D Tibbets]

The ZUMA mission goals and fate are clouded, to say the least. I think it can safly be said that the SpaceX contribution was nominal, based on the lack of flight interruption of the Falcon 9 launches- two since the ZUMA mission. What happened on the Northrup - Grumman side is hidden behind a wall of secrecy. Did it malfunction after separation, or is it working but operating under an effort to disguise its mission?

One speculation that I have not seen discussed is that the mission was suborbital to begin with, so of course it never reached (or maintained stable orbit). The SpaceX rocket apparently pushed it to to the intended parameters, and successfully deployed it. The consequences of non separation would have been very obvious from the telemetry of the second stage performance up to and including the 'deorbiting burn'.

I speculate, based on zero information, that the ZUMA mission may have been a test of a hypersonic engine. Perhaps a scram jet like engine. This would be similar to, but advanced, tests that was done with the Pegasus rocket booster a few years ago. The ZUMA "propulsion engine" could have performed various acceleration and maneuvering tests at near orbital speeds and altitudes, then purposely descended into denser atmosphere to end the mission. All of this performed over oceans and away from likely prying eyes. If this wild speculation is near accurate, it opens all sorts of other areas of speculation about hypersonic aircraft/ spacecraft and the current state of research into such...

Dan Tibbets

[Maui]

Musk: looks like development of BFR is moving quickly, and won’t be necessary to qualify Falcon Heavy for crewed spaceflight.

Interesting. All the rumblings about whether a successful FH launch spells the demise of SLS, but Elon has already moved on to BFR.

[paperburn1]

I believe I posted earlier on this subject, the Orion crew module will not fit on the heavy but will fit on the BFR.

[paperburn1]

......
The heavy can not fit the SLS system because nasa has basically made that their little pork barrel. It may fly two or three times a year with everything working and funding present. This is where the "gamble" comes in with the BFR. First, it fits the SLS. second, It can easily launch the SLS system for 25 percent of the cost if musk pulls off the reusability thing. The manned part would be manned certified SLS and the BFR would already be launched certified by this point. The beancounters will eventually force nasa to utilise the BFR. We are currently paying the russians 70 million dollars a seat to fly to the space station , that is the estimated cost of a fully loaded Falcon to the station right now and the amortised cost of a BFR.
...

[Carl White]

Falcon Heavy may launch today at 2:20 pm Eastern. Can watch it here:

https://www.space.com/17933-nasa-televi ... ce-tv.html

27 engines? The vibrations must be fierce. I hope it flies, but fear there's going to be one heck of an explosion before it gets to max Q.

EDIT: They did it! Throttled the engines back near Max-Q to get past, then let them rip again. Amazing to watch the two boosters land simultaneously near each other. No word on whether the center core survived the drone ship landing.

[TDPerk]

They got the boosters back!

2nd stage coasting nominally to TMI burn.

[ladajo]

Would've loved to have been there in person.
The Tesla video and pics are Epic!