A highly classified U.S. government satellite appears to have been totally lost after being taken into space by a recent launch from Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to a new report.

Dow Jones reported Monday evening that lawmakers had been briefed about the apparent destruction of the secretive payload — code-named Zuma — citing industry and government officials

The payload was suspected to have burned up in the atmosphere after failing to separate perfectly from the upper part of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the report said.

According to Dow Jones, the absence of official word on the incident means that there could have been another chain of events.

The missing satellite may have been worth billions of dollars, industry officials estimated to the wire service.</s>A highly classified spy satellite appears to have been lost after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX rocket Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Asked to comment, Hawthorne-based SpaceX issued a statement Monday afternoon: “We do not comment on missions of this nature; but as of right now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally.”

A spokesman for Northrop Grumman Corp., which built the satellite estimated to be worth more than $1 billion, said: “This is a classified mission. We cannot comment on classified missions.”

The secret satellite, called Zuma, was built for the U.S. government, although it is unclear which part of it. It was supposed to separate after the firing of the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket. The Journal cited government and industry officials who were briefed on the mission and said the satellite didn’t separate and plunged back into the atmosphere.

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SpaceX was originally set to launch the Zuma mission in November, but the company tweeted at the time that it was postponing the mission “to take a closer look at data from recent fairing testing for another customer.”

SpaceX has been rapidly expanding its launch business, which includes NASA, national security and commercial missions. The company has recently ramped up its launch pace, even launching two missions from opposite coasts within about 48 hours.

SpaceX launched two other national security missions last year — a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office in May and the Pentagon’s autonomous space plane known as the X-37B in September.

In 2015, SpaceX was certified by the U.S. Air Force to launch national security satellites. That broke up a longtime and lucrative monopoly held by a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. known as United Launch Alliance.

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On its website, SpaceX says it has more than 70 upcoming missions on its launch manifest that represent more than $10 billion in contracts. In 2017, SpaceX completed 18 launches.

UPDATES:

7:40 p.m.: This article was updated to include information about the Zuma mission’s delay from November and additional context about SpaceX’s past national security launch missions.

This article was originally published at 7:20 p.m.</s>A highly classified U.S. government satellite appears to have been totally lost after being taken into space by a recent launch from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, according to a new report.

Dow Jones reported Monday evening that lawmakers had been briefed about the apparent destruction of the secretive payload — code-named Zuma — citing industry and government officials

The payload was suspected to have burned up in the atmosphere after failing to separate perfectly from the upper part of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the report said.

According to Dow Jones, the absence of official word on the incident means that there could have been another chain of events.

The missing satellite may have been worth billions of dollars, industry officials estimated to the wire service.

Northrop Grumman, which built the satellite, told Dow Jones through a spokesman: “We cannot comment on classified missions.”

A SpaceX spokesman told the news service: “We do not comment on missions of this nature, but as of right now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally.”

The Zuma spacecraft was attached to one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets and launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Falcon 9 successfully landed back to base.

Landing and reusing rockets is the main aim of SpaceX scientists, who argue that it reduces the cost of launches and allows it to perform more missions.

SpaceX did not reveal the purpose of Zuma because it is classified, but the mission marked Elon Musk’s company’s first in 2018.</s>
• A highly classified US spy satellite was reportedly lost after a failed SpaceX launch in Florida.
• The satellite, code-named Zuma, failed to reach orbit and fell back into Earth's atmosphere after separating from the Falcon 9 rocket.
• A SpaceX spokesperson told Business Insider, "We do not comment on missions of this nature; but as of right now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally."



A highly classified US spy satellite has been lost after a failed SpaceX launch from Florida on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The satellite, code-named Zuma, failed to reach orbit and fell back into Earth's atmosphere after separating from the Falcon 9 rocket.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this situation occurs when a satellite is released at the wrong time or is damaged.

Officials who spoke with NBC said the satellite likely broke up or landed in the sea.

A SpaceX spokesperson told Business Insider, "We do not comment on missions of this nature; but as of right now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally."

The Journal indicated this type of language points to normal rocket operations, meaning the cause of any issue came from elsewhere.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said on Twitter that SpaceX did not supply the payload adapter, which shoots the satellite off the rocket, for this mission. Instead it was supplied by the customer, so Elon Musk's SpaceX may not have been the cause of any problem. However, those details were not immediately known.

Zuma was built by defense contractors Northrop Grumman, though it is unknown which US agency would have been using the satellite.

Zuma was initially scheduled to launch in November, but was delayed until the rocket and satellite were declared "healthy" for launch last week.

The mission likely cost billions of dollars and lawmakers in the US Senate and House have been briefed on the developments, The Journal reported.</s>The highly classified and expensive government satellite launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral has reportedly been destroyed. SpaceX isn’t commenting on the allegedly failed mission, however.

Despite the launch being shrouded in secrecy, SpaceX seemed to have successfully carried a mysterious government satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sunday. SpaceX was able to land the booster’s first stage, while the second stage continued to carry the secretive Zuma payload to its destination in low-orbit.

SpaceX has now landed Falcon 9 boosters a total of 21 times. However, SpaceX never officially confirmed the success of the mission.

On Monday, lawmakers were informed that the mission was “a total loss” and the payload plummeted back into the atmosphere when it failed to detach from the rocket, sources told the Wall Street Journal.

While the details are unknown, reports said the payload failed to detach from the second stage properly. The Zuma satellite was attached to the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which is designed to fall back to Earth and burn up in reentry.

Sources also told TechCrunch and Ars Technica that the payload fell back to Earth attached to the second stage of the Falcon 9.

On Monday, Peter de Selding, the editor of Space Intel Report, cited sources who told him that the satellite “may be dead in orbit” after it separated from the SpaceX rocket.

Aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman was contracted by the government to build the satellite, which the Wall Street Journal said was worth billions of dollars. Northrop Grumman then selected SpaceX as the launch provider.

When asked about the reported failure, a Northrop Grumman spokesman told the Wall Street Journal they could not comment on “classified missions.”

A SpaceX spokesman also told Selding that a review of the data indicates the Falcon 9 “performed nominally.” The terminology normally mean the rocket’s engines and navigations systems operated without glitches, which would indicate that the satellite failed after separation from the second stage. However, there has not been any official confirmation that the launch failed at all.

Selding added that there has been a “long history” of launch providers and satellite builders arguing over who caused a failure during the seperation.

Zuma's liftoff was originally scheduled for mid-November, but SpaceX pushed the launch date back so the company could study data from a previous payload-fairing test that they carried out for a different partner.

SpaceX has conducted two national security launches in the past. In May 2017, it dispatched a satellite from the National Reconnaissance Office and in September, it launched a robotic X-37B space plane for the US Air Force.

Zuma was funded by an unknown branch of the US government and its payload is classified.

The failed mission could be devastating for SpaceX, which is facing competition for government launches from United Launch Alliance, an existing launch provider jointly operated by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.</s>SpaceX insists it did everything right during a highly classified government satellite launch that went awry.

The secret U.S. government Zuma satellite launched Sunday is reportedly lost, and little information about what happened to it has been released.

Northrop Grumman said Tuesday it does not comment on classified missions.

However, SpaceX said the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the payload performed as expected.

"For clarity: after review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night. If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately. Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false. Due to the classified nature of the payload, no further comment is possible.

"Since the data reviewed so far indicates that no design, operational or other changes are needed, we do not anticipate any impact on the upcoming launch schedule."

SpaceX will still execute its scheduled "static fire" test of the Falcon Heavy rocket at another Cape Canaveral launchpad, Shotwell said. Static fire tests tests the rocket's boosters full thrust, as well as other functions on the rocket and ground support systems. The highly anticipated rocket, which is SpaceX's largest, will take its maiden flight soon after that, she said.

SpaceX also plans to launch another Falcon 9 (F9) for communications provider SES and the Luxembourg government from another launchpad (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral in three weeks.

The satellite was reportedly lost, possibly falling back into the atmosphere, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources.

Very little was known about the mission at all, such as the cost of the satellite and its exact purpose. This was SpaceX's third launch for the U.S. military, according to Ars Technica.

SpaceX has driven down the costs of launching rockets, but has also had some high-profile failures, including an explosion on a launch pad in 2016 that claimed a communications satellite that cost an estimated $300 million to build.

The Falcon 9 rocket landed safely after the launch.</s>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX has launched a secret satellite code-named Zuma on its first flight of the new year.

The unmanned Falcon rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday night, carrying the satellite toward an undisclosed orbit.

SpaceX ended launch commentary five minutes into the flight because of the classified nature of the U.S. satellite. But the company continued to broadcast the return of the first-stage booster to Cape Canaveral, where it landed upright as part of a recycling effort.

Northrop Grumman provided the satellite, for which government agency it wouldn't say. The name "Zuma" refers to a Southern California beach.

Last year was a banner year for SpaceX, with 18 launches. It's aiming for more this year.

Related: SpaceX rocket lights sky as it carries satellites from California</s>(CNN Money) — A secret spacecraft launched by a SpaceX rocket on Sunday failed to enter a stable orbit and was lost.

The spacecraft, called Zuma, launched at 8 p.m. Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

But the spacecraft apparently did not separate as it was supposed to from the upper stage of the rocket and did not reach a stable orbit, according to a U.S. administration official and two sources who were briefed on the matter. The sources would not confirm what exactly the payload was, saying it was classified.

The mission itself was shrouded in secrecy even before it failed to enter a stable orbit. The government agency that ordered the spacecraft has not been disclosed.

Northrop Grumman, the aerospace and defense company that built the Zuma spacecraft, would only say: “This is a classified program. We cannot comment on classified programs.” SpaceX has also declined to give details about the spacecraft.

In a statement, the Department of Defense said, “As a matter of policy we do not comment on classified missions.”

It was not immediately clear if the failure of this mission was due to problems with the SpaceX rocket, or with the Zuma spacecraft. SpaceX issued a statement Tuesday suggesting that its rocket performed as designed.

“After review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night,” said the statement from Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX. “If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately. Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false. Due to the classified nature of the payload, no further comment is possible.”

“Since the data reviewed so far indicates that no design, operational or other changes are needed, we do not anticipate any impact on the upcoming launch schedule,” Shotwell added. “Falcon Heavy has been rolled out to launchpad LC-39A for a static fire later this week, to be followed shortly thereafter by its maiden flight.”

Falcon Heavy is SpaceX’s massive new rocket that will boast three times the thrust of the Falcon 9.

The fact that SpaceX says the Falcon Heavy launch will move forward as scheduled also indicates there were no issues with the rocket. When SpaceX has had mishaps in the past, it’s grounded the company for months.

Because of Zuma’s secrecy, SpaceX didn’t live stream the entire mission as it typically does. But it did show both the launch and the landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket back at Cape Canaveral.

This is not the first time a payload was lost on a SpaceX mission. On September 1, 2016 a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded while preparing to test fire its engines, destroying the Amos 6 communications satellite atop the rocket that was to be used by Facebook. Additionally, a SpaceX rocket carrying supply missions to the International Space Station for NASA exploded in 2015. However, the company has completed more than ten successful supply missions to ISS.

The loss of a government payload comes at a bad time for SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk, who is CEO of both the privately-held rocket company and electric car maker Tesla.

It has been competing with other private companies to launch more military payloads. And it plans to carry its first astronauts into space in its Dragon space capsule later this year. Since the last Space Shuttle flight in 2011, NASA has relied upon the Russian space agency to carry U.S. astronauts to the ISS.</s>A secret spacecraft launched by a SpaceX rocket on Sunday failed to reach orbit and was lost.

The spacecraft, called Zuma, launched at 8 p.m. Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

But the spacecraft apparently did not separate as it was supposed to from the upper stage of the rocket and did not reach a stable orbit, according to a U.S. administration official and two sources who were briefed on the matter. The sources would not confirm what exactly the payload was, saying it was classified.

The mission itself was shrouded in secrecy even before it failed to reach orbit. The government agency that ordered the spacecraft has not been disclosed. Northrop Grumman, the aerospace and defense company that built the Zuma spacecraft, would only say: “This is a classified program. We cannot comment on classified programs.” SpaceX has also declined to give details about the spacecraft.

It was not immediately clear if the failure of this mission was due to problems with the SpaceX rocket, or with the Zuma spacecraft. SpaceX issued a statement Tuesday suggesting that its rocket performed as designed.

“After review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night,” said the statement from Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX. “If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately. Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false. Due to the classified nature of the payload, no further comment is possible.”

Because of Zuma’s secrecy, SpaceX didn’t live stream the entire mission as it typically does. But it did show both the launch and the landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket back at Cape Canaveral.

This is not the first time a SpaceX rocket has lost a payload. On September 1, 2016 a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded while preparing to test fire its engines, destroying the Amos 6 communications satellite atop the rocket that was to be used by Facebook. Additionally, a SpaceX rocket carrying supply missions to the International Space Station for NASA exploded in 2015. However, the company has completed more than ten successful supply missions to ISS.

The loss of a government payload comes at a bad time for SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk, who is CEO of both the privately-held rocket company and electric car maker Tesla.

It has been competing with other private companies to launch more military payloads. And it plans to carry its first astronauts into space in its Dragon space capsule later this year. Since the last Space Shuttle flight in 2011, NASA has relied upon the Russian space agency to carry U.S. astronauts to the ISS.</s>A highly classified government satellite worth about $1 billion fell back through the Earth’s atmosphere and plunged into the ocean after it failed to reach its proper orbit following a Sunday night launch by SpaceX, according to a published report Tuesday.

An unidentified government official told ABC News that the spacecraft landed in the Indian Ocean.

Speculation was rampant Tuesday about why the mission, code-named Zuma, failed as government officials refused to give details, citing national security concerns.

Northrop Grumman Corp., which built the satellite, declined to make any comment: “This is a classified program. We cannot discuss classified programs.”

However, Gwynne Shotwell, president of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, issued a statement Tuesday morning after a Wall Street Journal Report blamed the Hawthorne-based company for the failure. The report quoted unidentified lawmakers and congressional staffers saying the Falcon 9 rocket didn’t deliver the spacecraft to its proper orbit, causing it to free fall back to Earth.

“For clarity: after review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night,” Shotwell said. “If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately. Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false. Due to the classified nature of the payload, no further comment is possible.

“Since the data reviewed so far indicates that no design, operational or other changes are needed, we do not anticipate any impact on the upcoming launch schedule,” she said.

Shotwell said the company’s Falcon Heavy — the first U.S. heavy-lift rocket designed for astronauts in more than 40 years — has been rolled out to launchpad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a static test fire Wednesday, “to be followed shortly thereafter by its maiden flight.”

Falcon Heavy, which carries 27 engines that can generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, is scheduled for a demonstration launch later this month carrying a cherry-red Tesla Roadster that will be placed into an elliptical Mars orbit.

Meanwhile, in the absence of an official cause for Zuma’s failure, public speculation mounted Tuesday about whether the rocket or the satellite was to blame for the failed delivery.

Some imagined that there was a more sinister narrative behind the incident.

“Zuma not lost, just so secret that they want you to believe it is lost so you dont know what’s going on, maybe a targeted spy satellite for North Korea,” said one commenter on a Reddit.com forum about the issue.

The Zuma launch was originally scheduled for November and delayed because of concerns found during tests with a Falcon 9 nose-cone fairing for another launch. A fairing failure could have prevented the satellite’s proper deployment.

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts, said the fault may lie with Northrop Grumman Corp., which built the satellite and the adapter that connected it to the launcher.

“On this mission the customer provided its own payload adapter, so separation may be its problem and not SpaceX’s problem,” McDowell tweeted.

The Wall Street Journal report was further called into question when amateur satellite trackers spotted the rocket’s second stage in orbit — a sign it successfully delivered the payload.

Air Force Space Command’s Joint Space Operations Center also briefly noted the satellite in orbit, experts said.

“If there had been a problem with the launch, I can’t imagine that (SpaceX) would be continuing to move forward with the Heavy,” said Rand Simberg, a retired aerospace engineer, consultant and author on space technology. “I’d say that it either failed to separate from the second stage and came in when the stage did, or it’s in some super secret orbit that orbit trackers will discover in a few days.

“If it was a separation failure, that’s apparently on Northrop Grumman Corp. and the unknown government entity” that contracted the launch.

Simberg said separation failure is one of the most common causes of failed launches. The satellite’s propulsion system also could have failed.

SpaceX broadcast the first part of the launch, which lifted off at 8 p.m. Eastern time from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket launched properly, and the first-stage booster completed an autonomous landing on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. But because of its secretive nature, details of the orbital insertion of the satellite weren’t shared publicly.

Phil Larson, a former SpaceX communications manager and White House space policy adviser who now leads strategic relations for University of Colorado’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, said the truth will likely come out before long.

“I think we’ll continue to know more data as the government and its providers are allowed to (release it), but it might take some time for an investigation or for congressional interest to reach fever pitch,” Larson said. “The nature of any classified mission is limited information. (SpaceX is) an open company when it comes to broadcasting launches and landings. But this is a requirement from a customer, and they work diligently to fulfill their customers’ missions. It’s up to the whole litany of government teams and private sector teams to talk about this as they can. But they need to protect the mission, of course.”

Despite speculation that the government agency that contracted the launch is purposely misleading the public, McDowell said that’s highly unlikely.

“The reported consternation in Congress leads me to think the failure is real,” McDowell said. “For too many reasons to elaborate, they wouldn’t fake losing” a satellite worth about $1 billion.

Larson said the impending Falcon Heavy launch is a good sign for the rocket company, which is coming off a highly successful year launching 18 missions and perfecting the autonomous return of boosters to Earth.

“If Falcon Heavy static fires this week, that will be amazing and exciting and bode well for launching the historic hardware,” Larson said. “It will be a historic launch for the United States of America. It’s essentially the nation gaining super heavy-lift capability at no cost to taxpayers.

“It will usher in a whole new era of exploration because it can lift up to 54 metric tons and enable science payloads going distant places at (low) cost points that we’ve never seen before, enabling missions previously precluded by launch costs and performance. It will open up the aperture for what we can do in space and lead this whole new commercial quiver of rockets coming online.”
The U.S. government's highly classified Zuma satellite is reportedly lost after being launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Northrop Grumman, who built the satellite, and SpaceX have both refused to confirm the mission's failure due to its classified nature.