Spysat Zuma

[Winston]

Lost in Space? The Zuma Satellite
JANUARY 13, 2018

https://allthingsnuclear.org/lgrego/lost-in-space-the-zuma-satellite

Zuma, The Phantom Satellite
The malfunction said to have doomed this spacecraft may have just been a cover story
May 22, 2018

https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4624

The Secret Zuma Spacecraft Could Be Alive And Well Doing Exactly What It Was Intended To
A great way to put an experimental stealthy craft into orbit is to imply that it never even made it there in the first place - JANUARY 12, 2018

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...nd-well-doing-exactly-what-it-was-intended-to

Previous example of a claimed "failed satellite" that wasn't - Misty:

Misty: The Spy Satellite So Stealthy that the Senate Couldn't Kill It

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB143/index.htm

MISTY / AFP-731
Follow-on ADVANCED CRYSTAL
The Stealth Reconnaissance Imaging Spacecraft

https://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/afp-731.htm

Misty 1, 2, 3 (AFP-731)

https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/misty-1.htm

The first one was Misty 1 (aka USA 53 and AFP-731), deployed from Shuttle in 1990. Misty-1 remained in orbit for at least 7.5 years.

USA 144 was probably the Misty 2 mission. Launched from Vandenberg in May 1999 aboard a Titan-4(03)B with no upper stage, USA 144 probably has an IMINT mission, but its orbit is a mystery. Hobbyist satellite observers continue to track an object from that launch in a 2700 km × 3100 km, 63.4° orbit, but detailed orbital analysis reveals significant solar radiation pressure perturbations, from an area to mass ratio of about 0.1 m2/kg, 10 to 20 times that of a payload, and more akin to debris or a decoy, can be deduced. It appears to be no more than 5 to 10 m across, and only a few hundred kilograms in mass. If USA 144 is Misty-2, then it is likely to be in a 700 to 800 km, quasi 65° orbit. These orbits are low-drag, so orbit maintenance manoeuvres are not required.

The status of a third mission is unknown and it is likely cancelled.

Fuel dump of Zuma's Falcon 9 Upper Stage observed by a Dutch pilot over east Africa (and rumours that Zuma failed)

https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2018/01/fuel-dump-of-zumas-falcon-9-upper-stage.html

No conclusions from this long and interesting investigation and no update I can find:

GROUND OBSERVATIONS OF FALCON-9 SECOND STAGE ORBITAL VENTING/THRUSTING AS AID FOR INTERPRETING UNUSUAL VISUAL FEATURES OF MYSTERIOUS ‘ZUMA’ LAUNCH - March 20, 2018

https://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/zuma_vs_falcon9-stage2_clouds_plumes_overview.pdf

Stealth Satellite Resources

https://fas.org/spp/military/program/track/stealth.pdf

 

[Winston]

In a recent post on the SeeSat-L visual satellite observation email list, I saw this comment:

"While observing the USA 144 decoy, I snagged a fast moving UNID."

I investigated and it seems that subterfuge was possibly used with a previous stealth satellite series:

Misty 1, 2, 3 (AFP-731)

https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/misty-1.htm

Misty 2 (USA 144) probably has an IMINT mission, but its orbit is a mystery. Hobbyist satellite observers continue to track an object from that launch in a 2700 km × 3100 km, 63.4° orbit, but detailed orbital analysis reveals significant solar radiation pressure perturbations, from an area to mass ratio of about 0.1 m2/kg, 10 to 20 times that of a payload, and more akin to debris or a decoy, can be deduced. It appears to be no more than 5 to 10 m across, and only a few hundred kilograms in mass. If USA 144 is Misty-2, then it is likely to be in a 700 to 800 km, quasi 65° orbit. These orbits are low-drag, so orbit maintenance manoeuvres are not required.