TONIGHT - ZUMA Mission: Top Secret Payload Launches on Elon Musk's SpaceX Rocket

UPDATE:

Zuma satellite from @northropgrumman may be dead in orbit after separation from @SpaceX Falcon 9, sources say. Info blackout renders any conclusion - launcher issue? Satellite-only issue? -- impossible to draw. pic.twitter.com/KggCGNC5Si

— Peter B. de Selding (@pbdes) January 8, 2018

uh-oh?!

ORIGINAL:

SpaceX has scheduled its first launch of the year for Sunday night: the highly mysterious and secretive and much-delayed ZUMA launch.

The launch window is set to open at 8 p.m. EST at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

In October 2017, there was a last-minute change to SpaceX’s launch schedule for November, with the code name ZUMA.

Founder Elon Musk's SpaceX launch of the ZUMA mission is scheduled now for tonight, Sunday, Jan. 7, with a two-hour launch window between 8 p.m. EST and 10 p.m. EST (0100-0300 GMT).

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket
Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Aerospace watchdog site NASASpaceFlight.com -- which tracks commercial and government launches -- notes the ZUMA payload will be launched from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the LC-39A launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center. The only information available concerning the ZUMA launch is that the payload belongs to Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense corporation. Some speculate that this could be a “black commercial” mission (a type of shadowy joint project between private commercial firms and government agencies) involving some new type of reconnaissance satellite.

“Northrop Grumman realizes that this is monumental responsibility and have taken great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma,” Lon Rains, communications director for Northrop Grumman’s Space Systems Division, said in a statement. The Falcon 9 will deliver ZUMA to low-Earth orbit, an altitude about 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers). No government agency has claimed the satellite going up tomorrow. The National Reconnaissance Office, which usually announces the launches of its spy spacecraft, said that ZUMA doesn’t belong to the agency.

The ZUMA Payload Type? Probably Not Vinyl

More on the ZUMA Payload for SpaceX Rocket: Is There A Connection to "The Visitor"? (+ other very speculative theories. Note: ZUMA Payload launch occurs between the departure of "The Hitchhiker"/Harvest Moon and the arrival of "The Visitor"/Frost Moon.)

Elizabeth Cook & Mr. Jeremy Dylan
My Favorite Album - Elizabeth Cook on Neil Young's ‘Zuma’ (1975)

Also, more on Neil Young's "The Visitor" That Arrived on December 1, 2017.

---