USA-280 (codenamed "Zuma") was a classified

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

that was launched by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

on 8 January 2018, on the 47th flight of the

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payl ...

rocket. The National Reconnaissance Office was in charge of the Zuma project, though its purpose has not been disclosed. In November 2017,

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

stated that the launch "is a monumental responsibility and has taken great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma." ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' reported that the design was very sensitive to vibration and sudden shocks, and had a development cost approaching . Following the launch, unnamed sources stated that the satellite was lost during deployment and re-entered the atmosphere, and independent investigations concluded that the spacecraft likely failed to separate from its payload adapter.

Launch

In September 2017, SpaceX sent applications to the

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(FCC) for

special temporary authority Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stat ...

to transmit signals at 2.2 GHz during launch of "Mission 1390", for the time period between November 2017 and April 2018. The satellite, manufactured by Northrop Grumman, was initially scheduled to launch on a

from

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

Launch Complex 39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, were first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle. Ty ...

(LC-39A) in mid-November 2017, and launch-license for the rocket was issued by the

Office of Commercial Space Transportation The Office of Commercial Space Transportation (generally referred to as FAA/AST or simply AST) is the branch of the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that approves any commercial rocket launch operations — that is, any laun ...

on 9 November 2017. Northrop Grumman purchased a payload adapter to customize the release mechanism, which was then tested three times on the ground prior to payload fairing encapsulation. The Falcon rocket performed a

static fire test Launch vehicle system tests assess the readiness of a launch system to safely reach orbit. Launch vehicles undergo system tests before they launch. A wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and a more extensive static fire tests a fully assembled launch vehicl ...

as part of its pre-flight preparation, but results from a

payload fairing A payload fairing is a nose cone used to protect a spacecraft payload against the impact of dynamic pressure and aerodynamic heating during launch through an atmosphere. An additional function on some flights is to maintain the cleanroom environm ...

test for another customer led to a delay of nearly two months. On 22 December 2017, the launch license was re-issued with a change of the launchpad from Launch Complex 39A to Launch Complex 40. The launch was subsequently rescheduled for 4 January 2018, and was further delayed because of weather concerns related to the

January 2018 North American blizzard The January 2018 North American blizzard caused widespread severe disruption and blizzard conditions across much of the East Coasts of the United States and Canada in early January 2018. The storm dropped up to of snow in the Mid-Atlantic sta ...

. The satellite was launched on 8 January 2018 at 01:00 UTC from

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...

Space Launch Complex 40 Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), previously Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) is a launch pad for rockets located at the north end of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The launch pad was used by the United States Air Force for 55 Titan III a ...

(SLC-40) in Florida. The Falcon 9 first stage touched down at

Landing Zone 1 Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, also known as LZ-1 and LZ-2 respectively, are landing facilities on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for recovering components of SpaceX's VTVL reusable launch vehicles. LZ-1 and LZ-2 were built on land lea ...

, and SpaceX later announced that all data indicated the launch vehicle had performed properly. At approximately 03:15 UTC, the pilot of an aircraft traveling over

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, as well as another person in

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, observed a spiral-shaped fuel dump attributed to the re-entering upper stage.

Fate

The fate of the spacecraft is not publicly known. According to unsourced media claims, U.S. lawmakers were reportedly briefed about the loss of the spacecraft and an unnamed government official said that it had re-entered the atmosphere over the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, possibly due to a failure in the payload adapter provided by Northrop Grumman in detaching from the second stage. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', sensors had not reported the initial failure to detach. Later on, Zuma did ultimately detach from the upper stage payload adapter, but only after it was too late and with the orbit too low to attempt a rescue of the satellite. President and

COO COO or coo may refer to: Business * Certificate of origin, used in international trade * Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official * Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process ...

of SpaceX

Gwynne Shotwell Gwynne Shotwell ( Rowley; born November 23, 1963) is an American businesswoman and engineer. She is the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, an American space transportation company, where she is responsible for day-to-day operation ...

stated, "For clarity: 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." Lon Rains,

Communications Director Director of communications is a position in both the private and public sectors. A director of communications is responsible for managing and directing an organization's internal and external communications. Directors of communications supervis ...

of Northrop Grumman, stated that the company could not comment on the status of classified missions. Three days later, the Zuma

mission patch A mission patch is a cloth reproduction of a spaceflight mission emblem worn by astronauts and other personnel affiliated with that mission. It is usually executed as an embroidered patch. The term ''space patch'' is mostly applied to an emblem desi ...

had been removed from sale in the souvenir shop at the

Air Force Space and Missile Museum The Air Force Space and Missile Museum is located at Launch Complex 26 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. It includes artifacts from the early American space program and includes an outdoor area displaying rockets, missiles, and spa ...

and from online sales. On 8 April 2018, ''

'' reported that two independent investigations "tentatively concluded" that the spacecraft failed to separate from the payload adapter after launch due to errors introduced by Northrop Grumman. The adapter had been bought by Northrop Grumman from a subcontractor and heavily modified for use on the mission. Due to the classified nature of the mission, detailed information on the satellite and its fate may not be publicly released. Officially,

North American Aerospace Defense Command North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

(NORAD) still lists the satellite but with no orbital parameters and the orbital status code "no elements available", which is standard procedure for classified missions.

In the media

The U.S. government has not publicly stated if there was a failure of Zuma, and this secrecy has generated speculations on its purpose and its fate. A number of articles published by the amateur satellite tracking community stated that if the satellite was still in orbit or operating covertly, then it would likely be located visually. In the process of searching for Zuma, amateur astronomers instead found radio transmissions from

IMAGE An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

, a NASA satellite that was lost in 2005.

Gallery

File:Zuma Mission (39585580001).jpg, Launch of Zuma File:Zuma Mission (39556549372).jpg,

Long exposure Long-exposure, time-exposure, or slow-shutter photography involves using a long-duration shutter speed to sharply capture the stationary elements of images while blurring, smearing, or obscuring the moving elements. Long-exposure photography ...

of the launch and landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9 File:Zuma Mission (39585578201).jpg, Long exposure of the first stage reentry and landing

References

External links

* by SpaceX {{Orbital launches in 2018 2018 in Florida January 2018 events in the United States Satellites of the United States Spacecraft launched in 2018 SpaceX military payloads Spacecraft which reentered in 2018 Secret space vehicles