It’s not Elon Musk’s rocket that will hit the moon, but a Chinese one

In January it became knownthat the Falcon 9 rocket, launched by SpaceX in 2015, is due to crash into the moon in March. This information comes from Bill Gray, an astronomer and asteroid tracker. Just the other day, he confirmed the imminent collision, but clarified that he initially incorrectly identified the space object.

After looking more closely at the missile launch data over the past few years, Gray came concluded that the object he observed, which is approaching the moon, is part of a Chinese rocket, namely the Long March 3C. It was launched as part of the Chang'e 5-T1 mission on October 23, 2014, during which the return to Earth of the descent vehicle for the Chang'e-5 automatic lunar station was tested.

This version was confirmed by tracing the trajectory of the rocket in the opposite direction. According to Bill Gray's calculations, it was supposed to launch from Earth near the Chinese launch pad, and not from the NASA spaceport.

The confusion in identifying the object does not change the essence of the event itself and its date - on March 4, the rocket will crash into the moon.

Gray noted that this case perfectly demonstrates the importance of observing rocket boosters that are sent to deep space. At the moment, no official organization monitors objects like this.

The only people who pay attention to rocket boosters roaming space are the asteroid-tracking community, Bill added.