The US government will be launching Zuma into space on Thursday. South Africans can rest assured that every care will be taken of Zuma as he boldly goes where no one has gone before.
"The payload aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is a top-secret passenger for the US government named Zuma," reported SpaceFlight Now on Wednesday.
Northrop Grumman spokesperson Lon Rains said, as reported by Express, "As a company, Northrop Grumman realises that this is monumental responsibility and have taken great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma."
Rains told several online publications that "the Zuma payload is a restricted payload". This means no further information will be made available about the mission's purpose.
But no state agency claimed Zuma.
What is known is that one of Space X's Falcon 9 rockets will be launched into low-earth orbit. Lift-off has initially been scheduled for Wednesday, but has been postponed to Thursday, due to weather conditions. The launch will be from Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre in the American state of Florida.