On Thu, Jan 11, 2018 at 4:03 PM, Henry Vanderbilt
<hvanderbilt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Keep in mind that the one-off custom payload mount for this satellite was
provided by Northrop-Grumman, that this mount could nevertheless reasonably
be called part of the second stage (it would have been bolted on to the top
of the SpaceX second stage) and that the apparent failure being reported via
leaks was the satellite failing to separate from that custom mount.
Thus the apparently contradictory statements by SpaceX saying "*our* parts
of this mission worked just fine" and by anonymous Congressional staffers
blaming a "second-stage failure" might in fact both be true.
The fact that almost none of the people writing about this have a clue about
such subtleties doesn't help. (Nor likely most of the people leaking about
this.) I predict continuing confusion - abetted by a few people who do know
better but have axes to grind against SpaceX.
An expensive, highly classified U.S. spy satellite is presumed to be a total
loss after it failed to reach orbit atop a Space Exploration Technologies
Corp. rocket on Sunday, according to industry and government officials.
Lawmakers and congressional staffers from the Senate and the House have been
briefed about the botched mission, some of the officials said. The secret
payload—code-named Zuma and launched from Florida on board a Falcon 9
rocket—is believed to have plummeted back into the atmosphere...
