Since the launch of the satellite the ill-fated Falcon 9 has been chaotically looping around Earth and the Moon ever since. A rocket booster could crash into the moon in the next few weeks India’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter may also be able to locate the impact crater, which could be up to 65 feet (20 meters) in diameter. The fast-moving piece of space junk, which is all set to hit the surface of the moon is the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that hoisted the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite off planet earth. In an another case, a rocket launched by American billionaire Elon Musk’s company SpaceX back in 2015 is all set to crash into the lunar surface, and it might lead to a legal conflict.
In his blogpost, Gray first claimed that the debris is from billionaire Elon Musk owned SpaceX rocket.īut later Gray predicted that the object is a leftover piece of a Chinese rocket, specifically a Long March 3C that launched China`s Chang`e 5-T1 mission to the Moon.īut China`s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the claim, Space News reported. The doomed space debris was first reported by Bill Gray, an astronomer running Project Pluto. Nasa says images of the crash site which produced a. It was first thought to belong to SpaceX but was later pinned on Chinas space agency.
#Chinese rocket crash moon full#
The onboard narrow angle cameras have sufficient resolution to detect the crater but the Moon is full of fresh impact craters, so positive identification is based on before and after images under similar lighting conditions, he added. The origins of the rocket part remain a mystery. The leftover rocket will smash into the far side of. “We will not be near the impact site when it takes place so we won`t be able to directly observe it. The moon is about to get walloped by 3 tons of space junk, a punch that will carve out a crater that could fit several semi-tractor-trailers. “We certainly have an interest in finding the impact crater and will attempt to do so over the coming weeks and months,” John Keller, the deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, emailed to The Verge in a statement. As a result, NASA`s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter could not get a look at the crash. EST on the lunar far side, on Friday, reported. It is not clear where and when exactly the rocket parts will crash on the surface.
According to experts, the event took place at 7:25 a.m. Debris from a Chinese rocket is expected to fall back to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry this weekend. He corrected himself a month later, saying the "mystery" object was not a SpaceX Falcon rocket upper stage from the 2015 launch of a deep-space climate observatory for NASA.After seven-year of space odyssey, a three-tonne piece of Chinese rocket debris slammed into the Moon, creating a 65 feet wide crater on the lunar surface, the media reported. SpaceX originally took the rap for the upcoming lunar litter after asteroid tracker Bill Gray identified the collision course in January. Objects launching deeper into space are unlikely to hit anything and these far-flung pieces are usually soon forgotten, except by a handful of observers who enjoy playing celestial detective on the side. Low-orbiting space junk is relatively easy to track. No matter whose it is, scientists expect the object would have carved out a hole 10 to 20 metres across and sent Moon dust flying hundreds of kilometres across the barren, pockmarked surface. But Chinese officials are dubious it is theirs. The rocket had been tumbling haphazardly through space, experts believe, since China launched it nearly a decade ago. It may take weeks, even months, to confirm the impact through satellite images. The leftover rocket, travelling at 9,300kph, was on course to smash into the far side of the Moon at 11:25pm on Friday, away from telescopes' prying eyes.
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