IT'S POSSIBLE THAT THE OBJECT SLATED TO CRASH ON THE MOON ISN'T A SPACEX ROCKET AFTER ALL

The rocket due to impact the Moon is not from SpaceX's Falcon-9, but rather from China's Chang'e-5 mission, according to astronomer Bill Gray, who administers the Project Pluto programme used to track Near-Earth Objects.

Gray was the first person to spot a rocket on its way to the moon's surface.

"This object was (mis)identified as 2015-007B, the DSCOVR spacecraft's second stage. We now have strong proof that it is indeed 2014-065B, the Chang'e 5-T1 lunar mission's rocket. However, it will still strike the moon within a few kilometres of the anticipated location "In a blog post, Gray stated.

CONFIRMATION OF MISIDENTIFICATION

The upper-stage of an old SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite in 2015 was initially identified by the astronomer as the rocket that crashed on the Moon. He said that after successfully launching the payload, the two-stage rocket would run out of fuel and would burn up in the atmosphere. Because the rocket was too far away to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth-Moon system, it was forced to remain in a chaotic orbit.

The issue was discovered after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) noted that the DSCOVR spacecraft's trajectory did not take it very close to the Moon, therefore it would be unusual if the second stage wandered close enough to hit it. While JPL does not track space trash, it does keep an eye out for near-Earth objects approaching the planet or the Moon.

The remnant was first discovered seven years ago using data from the Catalina Sky Survey, and Brazilian researchers discovered that it orbited the earth rather than the sun, implying that it could be a man-made object. "In its early days in space, rocket hardware is prone to unusual behaviour, with residual fuel oozing out and moving it around. As a result, when you try to find out where the rubbish came from, you receive an erroneous (or at the very least distorted) response "Gray remarked.

'I'M SURE IT'S FROM THE CHANG'E-5 MISSION IN CHINA.'

He is now certain that the Chang'e 5-T1 mission, which launched on October 23, 2014, was the candidate launch. "It's uncertain when the Chang'e 5-T1 booster would have passed by the moon," he said, "but four days after launch is a realistic general estimate."

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell has supplied orbital materials for an amateur radio CubeSat that obtained a "ride-share" with the launcher, and it's a pretty close match, he said. The remains will nonetheless reach the Moon on March 4 and produce a fresh crater on the heavily cratered lunar surface, despite their new identity.

Gray believes that once the upper stage collides with the lunar surface, Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Spacecraft (LRO) and Isro's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will be able to locate the crater that would result from the collision.