SpaceX denies Falcon rocket caused secret Zuma mission failure

James Dean | Florida Today

Show Caption Hide Caption Watch SpaceX launch the secretive Zuma mission and nail the landing SpaceX successfully launched the secretive Zuma mission from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018 and landed the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage.

CAPE CANAVERAL — SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket “did everything correctly” during Sunday night’s launch of the government’s classified Zuma satellite from Cape Canaveral, the company said in a statement Tuesday that attempted to beat back rumors it might be responsible for a failed mission.

“Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false,” said Gwynne Shotwell, chief operating officer of Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX. “Due to the classified nature of the payload, no further comment is possible.”

SpaceX issued the statement in response to reports on Twitter and by some news outlets, not officially confirmed, that the secret satellite fell into the ocean after the Sunday blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Shotwell said the company's defense of the Falcon 9 was based on “review of all data to date,” and it would report any new information changing that assessment.

But the vigorous defense of the rocket implied that if the Zuma mission did fail, it was because of a problem with the spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman, which has not commented on the mission’s status.

More: SpaceX kicks off 2018 with launch of mysterious Zuma mission, Falcon landing

More: Elon Musk: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch will be before end of January

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters — citing officials who spoke on condition of anonymity — earlier reported the satellite is presumed "to be a total loss."

SpaceX cut off its launch broadcast after confirming that the rocket's nose cone — the cause of a delay to a planned November launch — had separated a few minutes after the 8 p.m. ET blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. That's standard procedure during secret national security missions.

But neither SpaceX nor Northrop later confirmed the launch was ultimately a success, as United Launch Alliance typically does for its classified missions.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday shared a long-exposure photo of the Falcon launch and landing taken by Satellite Beach High student John Kraus, with no indication that anything was amiss.

Marco Langbroek, an amateur satellite tracker from the Netherlands who was closely watching Zuma, said evidence shows the rocket’s upper stage did achieve orbit.

He noted that U.S. military’s Joint Space Operations Center, which tracks objects in space, did catalog an object designated “payload,” meaning something completed at least one orbit.

If something went wrong — “a big ‘if’ – I am skeptical,” he wrote in a blog post — it could be that the spacecraft ended up in the wrong orbit, that it did not work after separating from the rocket, or that it failed to separate from the Falcon 9’s upper stage at all.

Of those scenarios, he said, the third appears to be the most plausible.

The Falcon rocket’s upper stage vented excess fuel and was dropped from orbit on purpose, a standard procedure to minimize space junk. If the satellite was still attached, it would not have been salvageable.

From the Space Coast, bluish-white light appeared to swirl in the sky as the rocket’s upper-stage engine ignited some 50 miles up, about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, and the first stage began flying back to the Cape for a landing.

But while striking, the visuals likely were the result of what meteorologists said were relatively common weather conditions.

Viewers saw light from the Falcon 9 engines glowing and diffracted through a pair of thin cloud decks, one at 4,000 feet and another at roughly 20,000 to 25,000 feet, said Tony Cristaldi, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

The clouds were more widespread along the Falcon 9’s northeasterly path over the Atlantic Ocean, but broken up at the coast, which provided unobstructed views throughout the rocket’s rise and the booster’s descent to a landing.

The glow from the Merlin engines was accentuated in the same way that light reflecting off high clouds at sunrise or sunset is often particularly picturesque.

“The illumination of the rocket plume would cause similar effects as it’s passing through those clouds,” said Cristaldi.

Sunday night’s show was eye-catching, at least briefly, but didn't top the dramatic scene Southern California residents took in recently when a Falcon 9 blasted off near sunset on Dec. 22.

Light from the setting sun enveloped the rocket plume in a white bubble with a comet-like tail that transfixed viewers and went viral on social media. Musk played along with jokes about UFOs and aliens during the successful launch of Iridium satellites.

That phenomenon is known as noctilucent clouds.

SpaceX has been preparing for tests and a debut launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket, and for another satellite launch as soon as late January.

Shotwell said SpaceX planned to proceed with its launch schedule "since the data reviewed so far indicates that no design, operational or other changes are needed."

That includes the debut launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. A test-firing of the rocket’s 27 main engines is possible as soon as Wednesday afternoon.

Another Falcon 9 launch of a communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is planned within three weeks.

ULA is preparing to kick off its 2018 launch schedule with a Wednesday flight of a classified National Reconnaissance Office mission from California on a Delta IV rocket. That will be followed by a Jan. 18 night launch from the Cape of an Atlas V rocket and U.S. missile warning satellite.

Follow James Dean on Twitter: @flatoday_jdean