SpaceX to finally launch mysterious Zuma satellite on Friday
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch its Zuma payload. Delayed since November 2017, the launch of Zuma, a top-secret government satellite will take place on Friday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to Air Force officials.
NASA announced the selection of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon Spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) when the Space Shuttle retires in 2010.
SpaceX
The original launch of the mysterious Zuma satellite was scheduled for November 16, however, SpaceX pushed the launch date back to
study data from a recent payload-fairing test performed for another customer. (The payload fairing is the nose cone that protects a spacecraft during liftoff.)
Then, as today, the only thing the public knows about the
top-secret payload is that it will be headed for low-Earth orbit, and it is unclear which government agency will operate it. This is also one time that SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk has refrained from commenting on the mission, unlike other SpaceX missions.
SpaceX's Jaw-Dropping Rocket Launch Wows Spectators Across Southern California .
SpaceX
This is not the first time SpaceX has collaborated with the federal government - launching a National Reconnaissance Office payload last May and the X-37B space plane for the U.S. Air Force last September. And we all remember the spectacular
light display over Southern California when SpaceX sent supplies to the International Space Station on the back of a reused Falcon 9.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a secret US Air Force space plane takes off NASA's Kennedy Space Center
HO, SPACEX/AFP
Friday's launch will also include an attempt to land the first stage of the two-stage Falcon 9, which will come back to Landing Zone 1, a SpaceX facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station right next to KSC.
Zuma will lift off from KSC's historic Pad 39A, which once hosted space shuttle and Apollo moon mission launches. SpaceX has a launch window between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. EDT Friday (Jan. 5; 0100 to 0300 GMT Jan. 6).
