Zuma (satellite)
classified United States government satellite
USA-280 (codenamed "Zuma") was a classified United States government satellite that was launched by SpaceX on 8 January 2018, on the 47th flight of the Falcon 9 rocket. The National Reconnaissance Office was in charge of the Zuma project, though its purpose has not been disclosed. In November 2017, Northrop Grumman stated that the launch "is a monumental responsibility and has taken great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma." The Wall Street Journal reported that the design was very sensitive to vibration and sudden shocks, and had a development cost approaching US$3.5 billion.
Following the launch, unnamed sources stated that the satellite was lost during deployment and re-entered the atmosphere, and independent investigations concluded that the spacecraft likely failed to separate from its payload adapter.
Launch
In September 2017, SpaceX sent applications to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for special temporary authority to transmit signals at 2.2 GHz during launch of "Mission 1390", for the time period between November 2017 and April 2018.
The satellite, manufactured by Northrop Grumman, was initially scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in mid-November 2017, and launch-license LLS 17-104 for the rocket was issued by the Office of Commercial Space Transportation on 9 November 2017. Northrop Grumman purchased a payload adapter to customize the release mechanism, which was then tested three times on the ground prior to payload fairing encapsulation.
The Falcon rocket performed a static fire test as part of its pre-flight preparation, but results from a payload fairing test for another customer led to a delay of nearly two months. On 22 December 2017, the launch license was re-issued with a change of the launchpad from Launch Complex 39A to Launch Complex 40. The launch was subsequently rescheduled for 4 January 2018, and was further delayed because of weather concerns related to the January 2018 North American blizzard.
The public source identifies “Zuma (satellite)” as classified United States government satellite. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Zuma, satellite and classified.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Zuma (satellite)”, the useful work is to connect “classified United States government satellite” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q43297560. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2018, 2017 and 1390.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zuma (satellite)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.