After Mistaken Identity and Confusion, a Piece of Space Junk Slams Into the Moon (theverge.com) 12
After years of zooming through deep space, a presumed leftover piece of a Chinese rocket slammed into the Moon today, just as space tracking experts expected it would. From a report: At least, it should have hit the Moon around 7:30AM ET this morning, as long as the law of gravity has not changed. The collision brings an end to the rocket's life in space and likely leaves a fresh new crater on the Moon that may be up to 65 feet wide. The now-expired rocket has caused quite a buzz this past month. First of all, the vehicle was never intended to crash into the Moon, making it a rare piece of space debris to find its way to the lunar surface by accident. Additionally, there was some confusion over its identity, with various groups trying to nail down exactly where the rocket came from.
Originally, space trackers thought it was a leftover piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had launched a weather satellite back in 2015. But after careful analysis, various groups of space trackers confirmed that the rocket was likely leftover from the launch of China's Chang'e 5-T1 mission -- a flight that launched in 2014 to test out technology needed to bring samples back from the Moon. That mission, launched on a Chinese Long March 3C rocket, sent a spacecraft looping around the Moon in an attempt to see if China could send a vehicle to the Moon and then bring it back to Earth. Given the flight profile of the Chang'e 5-T1 mission and the tracking of the mystery object, astronomers are fairly certain that a chunk of the Long March 3C rocket has remained in an extremely elongated orbit around Earth ever since, only to find its way to the far side of the Moon.
Originally, space trackers thought it was a leftover piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had launched a weather satellite back in 2015. But after careful analysis, various groups of space trackers confirmed that the rocket was likely leftover from the launch of China's Chang'e 5-T1 mission -- a flight that launched in 2014 to test out technology needed to bring samples back from the Moon. That mission, launched on a Chinese Long March 3C rocket, sent a spacecraft looping around the Moon in an attempt to see if China could send a vehicle to the Moon and then bring it back to Earth. Given the flight profile of the Chang'e 5-T1 mission and the tracking of the mystery object, astronomers are fairly certain that a chunk of the Long March 3C rocket has remained in an extremely elongated orbit around Earth ever since, only to find its way to the far side of the Moon.
Re: (Score:2)
China says it's not one of theirs? (Score:2)
https://www.reuters.com/busine... [reuters.com]
I understand CCP credibility is an oxymoron.
Has the LDF responded yet? (Score:1)
Not trying to start a conspiracy theory but... (Score:2)
I was told it was launched from a lab in Wuhan.
It slammed into China's moon base (Score:1)
Meanwhile on the Moon... (Score:2)
Translation from Martian:
- See?! I told you to pick a different place for a house, Zorg! And look! Now we have this piece of shit in our garden! I've had enough now. I'm staying at my mother's hive tonight while you're cleaning up this crap!
Usual shite journalism (Score:2)
When it first came out that it was a Space X rocket stage the media pile-on was incredible. Lots of horrified and indignant articles.
Then the boffins confirmed it was actually a stage from a Chinese Rocket. Fair enough, it's hard to be exact with so much stuff up there and they corrected their analysis.
Zero apologies from the media and more or less silence on that fact is was Chinese.
It anything proves just how bad and judgemental the media are today this surely demonstrates it.