SpaceX launch of secret Zuma mission on hold until after Thanksgiving

SpaceX's launch of a secret U.S. government mission from Kennedy Space Center won't happen until after Thanksgiving.

Beyond that, the mystery surrounding the mission called Zuma, which was postponed last week, is only deepening.

SpaceX's only statement, issued last Thursday, said it had put the launch on hold so teams could review an issue uncovered during tests of Falcon rocket nose cones, or payload fairings, that were performed recently for another customer.

"We will take the time we need to complete the data review and will then confirm a new launch date," the statement said.

[What is SpaceX's secret Zuma mission about?]

[SpaceX studying Falcon rocket nose cones before proceeding with KSC launch]

The Air Force's 45th Space Wing has no launch scheduled on the Eastern Range until Dec. 4, when SpaceX tentatively plans to launch a Dragon capsule carrying International Space Station supplies for NASA.

Dragons don't fly with the fairings that cover satellites on top of a rocket, so that mission might not be affected by the issue SpaceX is studying now.

Meanwhile the Wing on Monday started a nearly two-week maintenance period that was scheduled to shut down the range through Dec. 1.

SpaceX would not be able to launch during that stretch unless the maintenance is interrupted. Such work has been delayed in the past to accommodate launches.

Further clouding the outlook for Zuma are news reports that the launch contract, booked by Northrop Grumman on the government's behalf, required a liftoff by Nov. 30.

That would leave SpaceX only a short window after Thanksgiving to pull off a launch, if the range is available.

Northrop and SpaceX would not confirm the reported deadline.

"We continue to work with SpaceX on the launch," a Northrop Grumman spokesman told FLORIDA TODAY on Monday.

So the mission's status remains uncertain.

The only public information about Zuma indicated a spacecraft would be delivered to low Earth orbit, launching on a northeasterly trajectory inclined about 50 degrees relative to the equator.

SpaceX planned to land the Falcon booster back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Amateur satellite trackers speculated that Zuma might be a follow-up to a classified National Reconnaissance Office mission SpaceX launched earlier this year, since Zuma appeared to be following a similar flight profile.

[SpaceX Zuma launch slips again as teams investigate hardware issue]

[Blue Origin's KSC rocket factory coming together ahead of December opening]

In that case, Zuma might be an experimental spacecraft testing technologies for observing rendezvous operations between spacecraft.

Some have gone as far as to suggest that there really is no Zuma mission — that the pre-launch preparations were an exercise to prove SpaceX's ability to fly on short notice.

SpaceX put a Falcon 9 on the pad at KSC and test-fired its main engines on Nov. 11. The rocket went vertical again before last week's planned launch attempts, but has since returned to its hangar.

Under that scenario, the payload fairing tests SpaceX cited might merely be an excuse to stand down from a launch that was never really going to happen.

Time will tell if SpaceX confirms a new launch date for the mission after the holiday.

Apart from Zuma and the ISS resupply mission targeted for early December, SpaceX has at least one other launch scheduled before the end of the year, of commercial satellites from California.

The company's 16 launches this year already are its most in a calendar year, tying rival United Launch Alliance's high mark in 2009.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FlameTrench.