SpaceX readies Falcon 9 for launch

FAN Editor

Kicking off an ambitious 2018 flight schedule, SpaceX readied a Falcon 9 rocket for launch Sunday evening to boost a mysterious government satellite known as “Zuma” into orbit.

Running a month and a half late because of payload fairing issues and subsequent rescheduling, the rocket was targeted for liftoff from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a two-hour window starting at 8 p.m. EST (GMT-5). Forecasters predicted an 80 percent chance of good weather.

Because the payload is classified, no details about its intended orbit, purpose or capabilities have been released. But SpaceX planned to provide coverage of the early moments of the flight, including an attempt to fly the Falcon 9’s first stage back to touchdown at the Air Force station.

Recovering, refurbishing and relaunching booster stages is a key element of SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s drive to lower launch costs. Going into Sunday’s flight, the California rocket builder has successfully recovered 20 stages in 25 attempts, 12 on offshore droneships and eight at Cape Canaveral.

The Falcon 9’s second stage presumably will still be firing when the first stage attempts to land Sunday, but details about the Zuma satellite’s intended orbit will remain a secret.

The launch was procured by Northrop Grumman for an unidentified government agency. The satellite popped up on SpaceX’s launch schedule last October, two weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration received an application for launch. Satellite launches are typically scheduled months, if not years, in advance and the agencies responsible for classified payloads are usually identified.

But Zuma’s purpose and owner remain a mystery. Spaceflight Now reported earlier that the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates numerous spy satellites, is not involved with the mission.

But given the planned first stage landing back at Cape Canaveral, the satellite is believed to be headed for a relatively low-altitude orbit. Satellites bound for the high orbits used by communications stations and electronic eavesdropping satellites typically would not leave a Falcon 9 with enough left-over propellant to attempt a return to Florida.

A worldwide network of amateur satellite trackers will be on the lookout in the coming days and weeks in hopes of detecting the spacecraft and determining the details of its orbit.

The Zuma launch is the first of up to 30 or so SpaceX flights planned for 2018 following a record 18-launch year in 2017.

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The Falcon Heavy, scheduled for its maiden flight late this month, will generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at launch with 27 Merlin 1D engines firing in concert.

SpaceX

With Zuma on its way, SpaceX engineers will turn their attention to a flurry of upcoming flights, including the maiden launch of the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket since NASA’s Saturn 5 and the space shuttle.

The first Falcon Heavy, made up of three Falcon 9 core stages and a single upper stage, will be erected atop historic pad 39A at the nearby Kennedy Space Center next week for a main engine test firing. All 27 engines will be ignited for several seconds to make sure the propulsion system is ready for flight.

The Heavy’s long-awaited launch is expected before the end of the month. In roughly that same period, SpaceX plans to launch an SES military communications satellite in partnership with Luxembourg and a Spanish Earth-observation station, both from pad 40.

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