U.S. Spy Satellite Believed Lost After SpaceX Mission Fails

WSJ ^ | 1/8/2018 | andy pasztor

[Bobalu]

There have been rumors that this launch payload had something to do with N Korea.

It IS possible the launch went fine but they want to keep that info secret.

China and Russia, and perhaps others, have the radar tech to know what happened to the launch.

You can image a spacecraft easily using deep-space network assets like Arecibo or the Green Bank Telescope.

China has a dish similar to Arecibo but bigger.

These days even Ham radio enthusiasts can concentrate enough RF power on a target like the ISS to use it as a reflector for communication.

We have some very large NRO satellites in geo orbit now that can use a tight spot-beam to provide cell and internet coverage to a small country from space...but there is an annoying lag.

[mrsmith]

Musk's spokesman says...

[Gasshog]

Lost in Space?

Oh Dear... how ever could that have happened?

[Axenolith]

Interestingly that would probably fit the bill for the resultant achievement of orbit of an object composed of the “payload” failing to separate from the upper stage.

[R_Kangel]

.... "An expensive, highly classified U.S. spy satellite is presumed to be a total loss after it failed to reach orbit" ...

...... Yup ..... Parsing the talking points meant for our enemies .... Sounds like the launch was a total success.

[Army Air Corps]

I didn’t know about the actions against Tesla. What’s the story?

[reasonisfaith]

Probably fake, word is it has to do with solving the NK problem.

[thingumbob]

Been reading the follow up to Q's info drop last night and the anons on 8 chan believe that Q confirmed it was a success.

If you believe all of that, than this call of failure is a cover up either to throw off the deep state/NWO or or the usual enemies Russia/China.

[onemiddleamerican]

Related??? Hmmmmm.....

https://twitter.com/willripleyCNN/status/950530230816395264

[mkleesma]

WTF...could nave put on top of a 50 year old Mercury Atlas rocket and made it up into orbit.

[DAC21]

“China and Russia, and perhaps others, have the radar tech to know what happened to the launch”

Yep. game of Chess. Will be interesting if we here from the Ins. Carrier.

[Rockingham]

I watched the launch from a backyard in Orlando. It seemed to me that something went wrong in that there were too much pyrotechnics after the first stage shut down and dropped away. Second stage start-up always has high risk because the vibration and shock of the first stage ascent can damage a second stage and lead to launch failure.

[BradyLS]

Yes. Anything that expensive and sensitive should on a workhorse we know that can get it done.

[Darksheare]

They bet it all and it was manned, and in the spirit of the old Soviet Union, we will never hear about it.
/ Kidding

[Spktyr]

1. The launch failure was optically observable. The payload was not seen to separate from the final stage properly and was not seen on optical, IR or radar observation.
2. There is no stealth in space at our current level of technical development or for any of the forseeable future. Physics precludes it. We’d have to invent some sort of wormhole technology and even *that* would be detectable on earth even with our primitive gravimetric sensing.

[Spktyr]

We can’t build those any more. We weren’t even able to build a Saturn V’s F1 main engine any more until Jeff Bezos paid to have actual flown motors pulled up from the bottom of the ocean to be checked.

You have NO idea how much space tech we’ve lost since the end of the Saturn programs and now. Much of which was due to NASA screwing around with things they thought ‘threatened’ their precious shuttle.

[Spktyr]

That we don’t have any more. All of our remaining launch systems have experienced failures in the last 20 years.

[mrsmith]

Ouch! That sounds bad, indeed.

[Magnum44]

US govt self insures it’s satellites, so it’s a taxpayer loss. This is what happens when you go lowest bidder. Musk has milked a lot of taxpayer money and has a track record that is awful compared to US staples like the Delta or Atlas. Sure, the falcon is cheaper but it fails more so it’s all even in the end.

[virgil]

For some reason I think it’s fake news.