MYSTERY surrounds a secret launch by Elon Musk’s SpaceX after a live video feed was apparently cut as the payload separated from the booster.
The secretive US government payload known as Zuma blasted off under the cover of darkness from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Just what exactly needed such special protection and secrecy is anyone's guess.
After being contacted SpaceX and the Pentagon were tight-lipped about what it was carrying.
It was confirmed the fairings deployed and the payload was well on its way to low-Earth orbit.
Northrup Grumman, the maker of the payload, said it was for the US government and would be delivered to low-Earth orbit, but offered no other details.
SpaceX has launched national security payloads in the past, including a spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, and an X-37B space plane for the US Air Force.
But the mystery deepened when a live feed of the launch was suddenly cut after it separated from the first stage of the rocket .
Meanwhile a poster on the conspiracy website Someone’s Bones claimed Elon was secretly obsessed with Nibiru, which is also known as Planet X.
They claimed: "I’ve known him for ten years, I know how the man thinks.
“The government promised him ‘life after Nibiru’ if he got on board with their program and promised to keep it all hush hush.
“That’s why all the payloads are classified; they deal with scientific instruments created to better gauge Nibiru’s timeline and the effects that will imperil our planet once it crosses.
“Granted, I don’t know all the details, but I know what I’ve been told, by Elon and others, and from what I’ve learned privately.”
But the SpaceX pioneer has never spoken publicly of Nibiru.
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After launch, SpaceX returned the tall portion of the Falcon 9 rocket to an upright landing at Cape Canaveral.
Cheers erupted at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California as the rocket glided seamlessly down to ground.
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk's goal is to perfect the technique so that rockets can one day become just as reusable as air-planes, thereby lowering the cost of space travel.
In December, Los Angeles' infamously busy traffic was brought to a standstill after a SpaceX rocket created an eerie sight that many mistook for a UFO.
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