Posted on 01/08/2018 7:10:37 PM PST by bkopto
An expensive, highly classified U.S. spy satellite is presumed to be a total loss after it failed to reach orbit atop a Space Exploration Technologies Corp. rocket on Sunday, according to industry and government officials.
Lawmakers and congressional staffers from the Senate and the House have been briefed about the botched mission, some of the officials said. The secret payload—code-named Zuma and launched from Florida on board a Falcon 9 rocket—is believed to have plummeted back into the atmosphere, they said, because it didn’t separate as planned from the upper part of the rocket.
Once the engine powering the rocket’s expendable second stage stops firing, whatever it is carrying is supposed to separate and proceed on its own trajectory. If a satellite isn’t set free at the right time or is damaged upon release, it can be dragged back toward earth.
The lack of details about what occurred means that some possible alternate sequence of events other than a failed separation may have been the culprit.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Oh shoot ....
Musk... Must have been that piece of crap electric car he added to the payload.
I’m sure Musk will get paid regardless. The losers will be US taxpayers and some insurance company.
The car will be atop the Falcon Heavy for its first launch sometime soon. This lost launch was with the standard Falcon launch platform.
Sabotage?
Or maybe it was successful but this is a false story to fool the parties that the satellite was to observe into thinking it is not up there?
These were my very first thoughts, also. There is a war going on, and we won't know most of its details until it's over.
According to Musk, he’s sending this same rocket to orbit the moon later on this year with humans on board... And considering that he and his company Tesla will soon be embroiled in civil and maybe even criminal actions before the courts, he will likely be the first volunteer.
Great flaming Wolf spiders!!!
Yes. From the reports it’s difficult to say whether the satellite was lost or they are just letting us to speculate for security reasons.
Yep, lost all my guns in that deep sea fishing mishap.
Rods from God could still be up there...
I would say misdirection. If it really failed there wouldn’t have been a peep about it.
That’s what I’m thinking. Make everybody think the mission failed to increase the element of surprise.
Apparently the Falcon worked fine and the failure was something after. I have my doubts though of course, no telling what happened. Could be just fine and any number of outcomes.
Sky Fortress perhaps? Was this supposed to happen or did it mess up Q’s plans?
Maybe intercepted by China or Russia??
Satellite?
What satellite?
That was a test deployment of the new General Electric Oven
To see how it holds up in the cold of space!
;^)
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