SpaceX launches secret government mission, brings rocket back in for a landing
SpaceX just sent a secret government mission to space.
The rocket, carrying its secret payload called "Zuma," lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
About 8 minutes later, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket came in for a beautiful night landing at a launch pad back at the Cape. The landing caused a sonic boom to be heard all the way to Orlando.
The mission was delayed from 2017, which was a record-breaking year for SpaceX, as the company launched 18 times. The Zuma landing marks SpaceX's 21st successful landing.
But we still don't know what it sent to space before coming back home.
While it isn't exactly clear what the Zuma mission is or precisely who it's for, we do have some clues.
"The U.S. government asked the aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman to procure a launch vehicle, in this case the Falcon 9, for the Zuma launch," a company spokesperson said in November.
"Northrop Grumman is proud to be a part of the Zuma launch."
The spokesperson also said that Zuma is heading to low-Earth orbit. This makes sense given that the relatively low orbit would SpaceX to bring the Falcon 9 first stage in for a landing back on land, rather than a drone ship at sea.
SpaceX uses the drone ship when it is sending a large payload to a low orbit or a lighter payload to a higher orbit because of the larger amount of fuel needed to bring the stage back.
What's particularly mysterious about Zuma is that spy satellites are usually claimed by the military agency that oversees them, known as the National Reconnoissance Office. That office has not claimed this payload.
Although we don't know what the Zuma payload is for, it does resemble two other missions in recent memory, and suggests this may be for an even more secret agency.
According to industry publication Spaceflight Now, the PAN and CLIO missions were unclaimed at launch, but it was revealed later that PAN was used to listen in on communications above the Middle East by the National Security Agency.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
