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.
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.
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).
