Where have we seen this before... From Jonathan McDowell: No orbit details given. No reentry date given, but for a secret payload it might not be. Implication is Space-Track thinks it completed at least one orbitAsked to comment, Hawthorne-based SpaceX issued a statement Monday afternoon: “We do not comment on missions of this nature; but as of right now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally.”
“When it was first launched from the space shuttle Atlantis on March 1, 1990, it was believed to be the first advanced KH-11 spacecraft,” he says, referring to the top-of-the-line American spy satellite. “Within weeks, both U.S. and Soviet space sources reported it had malfunctioned and would make a ‘fiery re-entry in the next 30 days.’ Both assessments were wrong.”
Space-Track has cataloged the Zuma payload as USA 280, international designation 2018-001A. Catalog number 43098.
Didn't you link something a while back where they did this trick of "losing" a satellite only for it to show up in a completely different orbit? Tell everyone it crashed then either boost the orbit, change the inclination, etc. We also know that they have worked on stealth tech to make it harder for the bored amateurs to track their birds down. Kick something off the back to reenter, say the boost package. The more I think about this the more trivial it would be to disappear a satellite, at least for a little while.
The problem is, that any effort to "hide" a satellite in orbit is ultimately doomed. Turns out there is this universe-wide background of these bright dots called "stars", and these basic principles like MATH and PHYSICS. There are only certain places satellites can be. Watching those spaces to see if anything dark passes in between Earth and the distant starfield is what a LOT of amateurs spend their spare time doing. (And foreign intelligence agencies do it as well, with better tools and equipment.) So things get launched "secretly", but are quickly (1 week to 18 months later) discovered, mapped, and linked to specific launches, countries, radio frequency transmissions, etc. Space is like Kansas... big, wide open, and doesn't contain much. But there are certain people who are very interested in it, know the landscape in detail, and know when even something small changes.
Yeah. That's MISTY. Best part is NORAD used to publish flare data - if it burned up in the atmosphere and ionized something, NORAD made note of it and distributed it to anybody who wanted it - scientists, observers, whatever. They cooked that shit off about 18 months before the first flight of the X-37. PROWLER was a mere 2900 lb. They coulda dumped 90% of the mass of that launch into the ocean and still launched a legit little payload. Fuckin' TEAL RUBY was 2000 lb. back in like '76. You think we've made some progress in electro-optical technology since '76?
