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Posted on 02/13/2022 6:57:36 PM PST by BenLurkin
This past January, astronomer Bill Gray said that the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket would collide with the Moon sometime in early March. As you might expect, the prediction set off a flurry of media coverage, much of it critical of Elon Musk and his private space firm.
But it turns out Elon and company are not about to lose face. Instead, it’s more likely that fate will befall China. That’s because Gray now says he made a mistake in his initial identification of a piece of space debris he and other astronomers dubbed WE0913A in 2015.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Jon Giorgini. He contacted Gray on Saturday to ask about the identification. According to Giorgini, NASA’s Horizons system, a database that can estimate the location and orbit of almost half a million celestial bodies in our solar system, showed that the DSCOVR spacecraft’s trajectory didn’t take it close to the Moon. As such, it would be unusual if its second stage were to stray off course then and hit the satellite. Giorgini’s email prompted Gray to reexamine the data he used to make the initial identification.
Gray now says he’s reasonably certain the rocket that’s about to collide with the moon belongs to China. In October 2014, the country’s space agency launched its Chang’e 5-T1 mission on a Long March 3C rocket. After reconstructing the probable trajectory of that mission, he found that the Long March 3C is the best fit for the mystery object that’s about to hit Earth’s natural satellite.
(Excerpt) Read more at engadget.com ...
I blame my neighbor Steve.
I wonder if the seismic sendors left on the moon during the Apollo missions will pick up shock waves from the impact.
Do they still work? Can they send back data? Can we receive it?
sendors s/b sensors
Now that we know it’s not Elon but instead it’s really the Chinese Communist Party all criticism will the labeled racist and censored on the major Socialist media site.
Plot of 2nd Time Machine movie....
The moon gets another crater.
Just hope it avoids hitting Alice Kramden.
Littering!
How often are second stage rocket boosters able to achieve a 238.9k mile orbit of the Earth?
They were shut off 9/30/1977, so: no.
Ha ha.
If the Moon Nazis decide it’s a first strike I’m totally blaming SpaceX.
Exactly. Can’t understand why anyone would be concerned, no matter whose rocket it is.
Odd. I keep having thoughts of a very large moon impact that threatens the earth. I know it’s odd but I keep looking up at night.
Don’t worry it is going to land in the Ocean. LOL
I’m with you.
Unless the booster happens to hit any of the artifacts left you the Apollo program there is not much to damage on the moon.
Only ecologic extremist would find something to worry themselves about in a piece of space junk landing on the moon.
For them anything man made is anathema.
I just hope it hits the Moon Nazis on the hidden side.
So, there’s going to be a chink in the moon?
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