Author Topic: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION  (Read 786551 times)

Online gongora

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #260 on: 11/15/2017 08:56 pm »
Question, is Zuma launch now simultaneous with Teslas big electric truck revelation?
Which one will Elon be at ? ;)

No, they're in different time zones.

Offline vaporcobra

Question, is Zuma launch now simultaneous with Teslas big electric truck revelation?
Which one will Elon be at ? ;)

No, they're in different time zones.

5pm and 8pm PDT, to be specific.

Offline nisse

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #262 on: 11/15/2017 09:26 pm »
How important is it for companies like Northrop Grumman to launch government satallites it builds on non-ULA rockets? I.e. not having to let ULA and potentially Boeing and Lockheed know what capabilities they offer the US government?

Offline gosnold

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #263 on: 11/15/2017 09:41 pm »
Okay, so what advantage could there be for a ~53 degree orbit, from a Milspace perspective?
caliphate?

It's pretty good to look at China and southern Russia. A 53° orbit gets you a few consecutive orbits that pass over China, and even provides short revisit of some places at the altitude of USA 276.

It's very good to look at North Korea: it gives 5 consecutive passes a day with OK look angle, so you could get TEL positions updated every 90 minutes, over 7.5 hours. If Zuma gets into a similar orbit, it could increase the frequency to 45 minutes if injected in the same plane, or increase the duration of the coverage window to cover almost the whole day if injected in a symmetrical orbit (that seems to be the case given the launch hazard areas). For that kind a mission a radar bird is likely as they can see through clouds. That would be a similar mission to the Lacrosse/Topaz, which are probably used to hunt Soviet/Russian TELs.

Plus the plane of USA 276 is close to the ISS, so if you shoot it you get into a multinational mess.
« Last Edit: 11/15/2017 09:49 pm by gosnold »

Online abaddon

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #264 on: 11/15/2017 09:42 pm »
How important is it for companies like Northrop Grumman to launch government satallites it builds on non-ULA rockets? I.e. not having to let ULA and potentially Boeing and Lockheed know what capabilities they offer the US government?
Not a concern; LV payload processing is carefully firewalled from other parts of the companies as a matter of course.

Online ZachS09

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #265 on: 11/15/2017 10:31 pm »
According to the Zuma press kit, the MECO time is 2 minutes and 16 seconds, which is the record for the earliest MECO time for Falcon 9.

This barely beats the NROL-76 mission by one second.
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Offline psionedge

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #266 on: 11/16/2017 01:29 am »
How important is it for companies like Northrop Grumman to launch government satallites it builds on non-ULA rockets? I.e. not having to let ULA and potentially Boeing and Lockheed know what capabilities they offer the US government?
Irrelevant. You don't think the govt would tell the competitors the specs they have to better to get the next win?

Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #267 on: 11/16/2017 02:19 am »
Booster 43.
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Online Eagandale4114

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #268 on: 11/16/2017 05:26 am »
Well this is interesting.

If you dont click on the link, a launch within the first 15-20 minutes of the window may put it next to USA 276 (aka NROL 76).

The author also emphasizes that this may just be pure coincidence. It will be interesting to see when this bird launches.
« Last Edit: 11/16/2017 05:28 am by Eagandale4114 »

Offline .Scott

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #269 on: 11/16/2017 11:45 am »
Well this is interesting.

If you dont click on the link, a launch within the first 15-20 minutes of the window may put it next to USA 276 (aka NROL 76).

The author also emphasizes that this may just be pure coincidence. It will be interesting to see when this bird launches.
USA 276 is reputed to be RADAR imaging demonstration satellite https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/05/24/observers-spot-top-secret-satellite-launched-by-spacex-earlier-this-month/

Zuma could be working in conjuction with that satellite - but NRO says it isn't there's.

My guess is that it's US Treasury or Justice Department.

Offline Star One

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #270 on: 11/16/2017 11:51 am »
Well this is interesting.

If you dont click on the link, a launch within the first 15-20 minutes of the window may put it next to USA 276 (aka NROL 76).

The author also emphasizes that this may just be pure coincidence. It will be interesting to see when this bird launches.
USA 276 is reputed to be RADAR imaging demonstration satellite https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/05/24/observers-spot-top-secret-satellite-launched-by-spacex-earlier-this-month/

Zuma could be working in conjuction with that satellite - but NRO says it isn't there's.

My guess is that it's US Treasury or Justice Department.

Why on earth would it belong to either of those organisations it’s far more likely to belong directly to one of the intelligence agencies.

Offline Johnnyhinbos

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #271 on: 11/16/2017 12:21 pm »
I can’t track it down, but when this payload was first mentioned on this site, even before “Zumba” was known as the name, the poster had mentioned something to the effect that people would be amazed when it was revealed. I’m paraphrasing at best, and it may have been an L2 post, but ever since then there was no more - and Zuma became basically another secret spy satellite. I’m going on the record to predict that once this thing is launched, stably in it’s target orbit, and operational - once that happens there will be some kind of an announcement about it. I think it’s possible that Trump in his desire to go into the history books for achievement in space, has green lighted this thing. He tweeted (ugh) a few days ago that he’d be making a major announcement after he returned from Asia, time and date to be set. It’s a huge stretch I know, but why not...
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Offline cscott

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #272 on: 11/16/2017 12:46 pm »
The Air Force has tweeted launch announcements; although that would just be because the launch is from an Air Force base, it also seems reasonable to me that this is an Air Force payload.

Offline tleski

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #273 on: 11/16/2017 12:57 pm »
I can’t track it down, but when this payload was first mentioned on this site, even before “Zumba” was known as the name, the poster had mentioned something to the effect that people would be amazed when it was revealed. I’m paraphrasing at best, and it may have been an L2 post, but ever since then there was no more - and Zuma became basically another secret spy satellite. I’m going on the record to predict that once this thing is launched, stably in it’s target orbit, and operational - once that happens there will be some kind of an announcement about it. I think it’s possible that Trump in his desire to go into the history books for achievement in space, has green lighted this thing. He tweeted (ugh) a few days ago that he’d be making a major announcement after he returned from Asia, time and date to be set. It’s a huge stretch I know, but why not...

I highly doubt it. Information posted a month ago on L2 directly contradicts this timeline. I would not be shocked if some of that "leaked information" posted on reddit was a deliberate misinformation. The fact that NRO denies it is their bird means nothing in case of highly secret mission IMO.

EDIT: Added link to the the L2 source and minor text fixes.
« Last Edit: 11/16/2017 01:26 pm by tleski »

Offline kevin-rf

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #274 on: 11/16/2017 01:43 pm »
Just saw the new SpaceX photo of Falcon 9 and Zuma. It's up on the Update Thread.

Looks really blank with barely any fairing art.

Not even any NRO type abstract art?

Nope, just a very minimal "Northrop Grumman" in tiny letters.

Bout time they stop letting the cat out of the bag!
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Offline old_sellsword

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #275 on: 11/16/2017 01:56 pm »
I would not be shocked if some of that "leaked information" posted on reddit was a deliberate misinformation.

For what it’s worth, none of the claims u/ASTRALsunder made have turned out to be wrong. He’s been active in the subreddit for quite a while and is respected an as ex-employee with many connections, he has never given us false information before.

Offline tleski

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #276 on: 11/16/2017 02:01 pm »
I would not be shocked if some of that "leaked information" posted on reddit was a deliberate misinformation.

For what it’s worth, none of the claims u/ASTRALsunder made have turned out to be wrong. He’s been active in the subreddit for quite a while and is respected an as ex-employee with many connections, he has never given us false information before.

But he was only relying what his SpaceX friend(s) told him. So I believe that he posted real information. We don't know what is the ultimate source of that information.

Offline ATPTourFan

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #277 on: 11/16/2017 02:15 pm »
According to the Zuma press kit, the MECO time is 2 minutes and 16 seconds, which is the record for the earliest MECO time for Falcon 9.

This barely beats the NROL-76 mission by one second.

Does this mean they configured this flight for extra high fault tolerance margins? If 100% nominal, they get the job done with 'plenty' of booster propellant left for RTLS. However, in the event of an engine malfunction or 2 (most unlikely), they'd still get this mission-critical bird where it needs to go by flying the booster longer to a later MECO time.

Offline Jim

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #278 on: 11/16/2017 02:16 pm »
Zuma could be some form of Space Tracking and Surveillance System (SBIRS Low) which demo satellites where built by Northrop Grumman. With what has been happening in North Korea they may of been asked to take some out of storage and launch them, if they had spares.


There are no spares and it would be a military launch

Offline Jim

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Re: SpaceX F9 : Zuma : January 7/8, 2018, CCAFS : DISCUSSION
« Reply #279 on: 11/16/2017 02:17 pm »
How important is it for companies like Northrop Grumman to launch government satallites it builds on non-ULA rockets? I.e. not having to let ULA and potentially Boeing and Lockheed know what capabilities they offer the US government?

Not important at all.  There is no issue with other companies launching other company hardware.

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