SpaceX Rocket to Launch Secret Zuma Mission Thursday Night

[Thebobo]

From cape kennedy Thursday, Nov. 16, between 8 pm EST and 10 pm EST. There will be a landing back on land of the booster.

https://www.space.com/38794-spacex-delays-launch-of-secret-zuma-mission-to-thursday.html

"...The spaceflight company test-fired one of its Falcon 9 rockets Saturday (Nov. 11) at Florida's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), to help pave the way for the planned Wednesday liftoff of a payload known as Zuma.

SpaceX will loft Zuma for the U.S. government, in a launch procured by aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman. But we don't know much beyond that; it's unclear exactly what Zuma is, or what it will be doing. And we probably won't find out, either. "The Zuma payload is a restricted payload," Lon Rains, communications director of Northrop Grumman's space systems division, told Space.com via email.

Rains did add, however, that Zuma is headed for low Earth orbit (LEO), which extends to about 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) above the planet. LEO's most famous resident is the International Space Station, which usually zooms around Earth at an altitude of about 250 miles (400 km), completing one lap every 90 minutes or so.

Wednesday's launch is scheduled to occur from KSC's historic Launch Pad 39A — the former site of Apollo moon mission and space shuttle liftoffs — during a 2-hour window that opens at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT on Nov. 16).

If all goes according to plan, less than 10 minutes after liftoff, the two-stage Falcon 9's first stage will come back to Earth for a vertical touchdown at Landing Zone 1, a SpaceX facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next door to KSC."

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Maybe from now on we can just put all Falcon 9 launches in one thread?

 

[tynopik]

delayed another 24 hours

“We have decided to stand down and take a closer look at data from recent fairing testing for another customer. Though we have preserved the range opportunity for tomorrow, we will take the time we need to complete the data review and will then confirm a new launch date.”

in other words, the delay might be a lot longer than 24 hours

 

[IronWing]

Zuma… space vacuum

 

[BoomerD]

Must not be TOO secret...

 

[tynopik]

as suspected, launch has been delayed indefinitely while they review data

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Orbital strike on them commies.

 

[Thebobo]

Looking good so far for a launch tonight, 8pm est.

 

[tynopik]

Looking good so far for a launch tonight, 8pm est.

it's on hold till they sort out the fairing issue

 

[Thebobo]

it's on hold till they sort out the fairing issue

Ah ok thanks I had heard there was a problem, I see they updated their site with new info right after I posted lol.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/15...launch-zuma-mission-us-government-live-stream

 

[Thebobo]

M P

 

[Darwin333]

it's on hold till they sort out the fairing issue

Aren't the fairings basically the simplest thing on the rocket? They cover the payload and then they are jettisoned once in space, right? Besides add to the rockets aerodynamics what else do they do that can go wrong?

 

[PottedMeat]

Aren't the fairings basically the simplest thing on the rocket? They cover the payload and then they are jettisoned once in space, right? Besides add to the rockets aerodynamics what else do they do that can go wrong?

here's $425 million burned up in the atmosphere
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(satellite)

here's another $280 million up in smoke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbiting_Carbon_Observatory

all because the payload fairing didn't split

maybe the customer wants to know exactly what spacex is doing differently in fairing recovery

or its just bullshit to cloud anything about the classified payload

 

[Darwin333]

here's $425 million burned up in the atmosphere
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(satellite)

here's another $280 million up in smoke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbiting_Carbon_Observatory

all because the payload fairing didn't split

maybe the customer wants to know exactly what spacex is doing differently in fairing recovery

or its just bullshit to cloud anything about the classified payload

Still, for a seriously complicated rocket meant to put shit into space it seems to me, a non-rocket scientist, that the fairing would be the easy shit.

 

[tynopik]

Still, for a seriously complicated rocket meant to put shit into space it seems to me, a non-rocket scientist, that the fairing would be the easy shit.

which is why they had the interns design it during summer break with minimal adult supervision

'Such a simple thing, how could they possibly mess it up?'

 

[IronWing]

Still, for a seriously complicated rocket meant to put shit into space it seems to me, a non-rocket scientist, that the fairing would be the easy shit.

You mean the part that takes the hit as the rocket punches through the atmosphere at supersonic speed and has to gracefully eject itself at the proper time or the mission is shot?

 

[Darwin333]

You mean the part that takes the hit as the rocket punches through the atmosphere at supersonic speed and has to gracefully eject itself at the proper time or the mission is shot?

Yup, that is the part I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong, I understand it's absolutely critical but when compared to the rest of the rocket like, oh lets say:

Of which there are 9 of in the 1st stage that can be vectored and can be throttled. Each of which having 2 turbopumps that dump 273kg of fuel and oxidizer into their engine every second. They are connected to a giant ass "fuel tank" that is roughly 130 feet tall and holds roughly 400,000kg of liquid oxygen and RP-1 and the LOX has to be kept below -300F btw. All of which also has to separate at a much more exact time than the fairing. Then you have the entire "operating system" that not only controls all of that shit but also controls the reentry that lands it either on land or a barge upright using 4 little "spatula" like things to maneuver and it's rocket engines to slow itself and land.

Then you have the 2nd stage which is basically a smaller version of the above and only has one big ass rocket engine but it's modified to work in a vacuum and looks more like this:

I'm not sure of all of the modifications but you can notice that it has a much larger nozzle. It also has to burn for an exact amount of time and then release its payload, sometimes it then has to relight its engine and deliver another payload.

 

[tynopik]

eastern range annual maintenance from today to Dec 1st, so no launch till then at least

 

[Thebobo]

eastern range annual maintenance from today to Dec 1st, so no launch till then at least

Interesting thanks for the info had to look that up to see what it was.