SpaceX Completes First Launch of 2018: Secretive 'Zuma' Spacecraft (cnn.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday January 7, 2018 @02:34PM from the if-I-told-you-it-wouldn't-be-a-secret dept.

SpaceX's first launch of 2018 was "a secretive spacecraft commissioned by the U.S. government for an undisclosed mission," reports TechCrunch. An anonymous reader quotes CNN: After more than a month of delays, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket vaulted toward the skies at 8 p.m. ET Sunday with the secretive payload. It launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida... The company [then] executed its signature move: guiding the first-stage rocket booster back to Earth for a safe landing. Just over two minutes after liftoff Sunday, the first-stage booster separated from the second stage and fired up its engines. The blaze allowed the rocket to safely cut back through the Earth's atmosphere and land on a pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station... The company completed a record-setting 18 launches last year, and SpaceX plans to do even more this year, according to spokesman James Gleeson.

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Re: Shame it's not NASA by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-07 16:24 · Score: -1, Flamebait

Don't worry. Obama gave NASA the critical mission of "teaching science with Muslim sensibilities in mind" (literally what he said).
That is why we're 10 years behind. If Hillary had won, it'd be 20.
Say what you will about the man, but Trump's America First puts innovation, exploration, and exceptionalism back in play.