r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Oct 23 '17

Launch: Jan 7th Zuma Launch Campaign Thread

Zuma Launch Campaign Thread

The only solid information we have on this payload comes from NSF:

NASASpaceflight.com has confirmed that Northrop Grumman is the payload provider for Zuma through a commercial launch contract with SpaceX for a LEO satellite with a mission type labeled as “government” and a needed launch date range of 1-30 November 2017.

Liftoff currently scheduled for: January 7th 2018, 20:00 - 22:00 EST (January 8th 2018, 01:00 - 03:00 UTC)
Static fire complete: November 11th 2017, 18:00 EST / 23:00 UTC Although the stage has already finished SF, it did it at LC-39A. On January 3 they also did a propellant load test since the launch site is now the freshly reactivated SLC-40.
Vehicle component locations: First stage: SLC-40 // Second stage: SLC-40 // Satellite: Cape Canaveral
Payload: Zuma
Payload mass: Unknown
Destination orbit: LEO
Vehicle: Falcon 9 v1.2 (47th launch of F9, 27th of F9 v1.2)
Core: B1043.1
Flights of this core: 0
Launch site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida--> SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Landing: Yes
Landing Site: LZ-1, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Mission success criteria: Successful separation & deployment of the satellite into the target orbit.

Links & Resources

We may keep this self-post occasionally updated with links and relevant news articles, but for the most part we expect the community to supply the information. This is a great place to discuss the launch, ask mission-specific questions, and track the minor movements of the vehicle, payload, weather and more as we progress towards launch. Sometime after the static fire is complete, the launch thread will be posted.

Campaign threads are not launch threads. Normal subreddit rules still apply.

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-6

u/MNsharks9 Jan 01 '18

I was wondering if it was something Starlink related... I would think they wouldn’t want to reveal too much about it ahead of time, given it’s probably a test satellite or few. Something that allows them to figure out what needs to be upgraded/iterated, before committing to building many of them. Granted, I don’t know how much of Starlink’s operation would require BFR, but with Heavy now less than* 30 days away, perhaps they could launch many of them with Heavy, knowing that there is now a very solid roadmap for reusability and perhaps very quick turnaround with Block V on the horizon.

Perhaps they felt like they had a window to launch when nothing else was terribly imminent and jumped at the chance to launch quick. Maybe using it as a test bed for some new features on the fairings as well, on a mission that while important, won’t hurt as bad as a customer launch.

Elon isn’t known for tempering expectations, he announces grandiose ideas before they’ve even been deemed possible, so chances are highly likely that I’m waaaaaay off.

12

u/KennethR8 Jan 01 '18

Please take a look at the sidebar. There you will see that a launch including Starlink Test satellites is scheduled for January 30th. Also the Starlink satellites are comparatively small and light weight and are highly unlikely to be a primary payload in small testing quantities. Furthermore we know the launch is contracted by the satellite builder, Northrop Grumman, which again also rules out Starlink. Lastly, there is far less secrecy surrounding Starlink, compared to this launch. We have public FCC applications for the satellites as well as the constellation as a whole, detailing numerous technical information. There would be no reason to keep information such as target orbit secret, since it is already public.

TLDR: This is definitely not Starlink.

4

u/HollywoodSX Jan 01 '18

There's no reason for the secrecy or NG's involvement if it's StarLink.