Chinese rocket crash moon full#
Chinese rocket crash moon series#

But there was definitely still an object hurtling towards the Moon. In an effort to reconcile the conflicting trajectories, Gray began to dig back into his data, where he discovered that he had misidentified the DSCOVR booster way back in 2015. Giorgini pointed out that DSCOVR’s trajectory shouldn’t have taken the booster anywhere near the Moon. Gray spread the word, and the story made the rounds in late January – but a few weeks later, he received an email from Jon Giorgini at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). Mark Robinson, Principal Investigator of the LRO Camera team, proposes that this double crater formation might result from an object with distinct, large masses at each end. The impact site consists of an 18-meter-wide eastern crater superimposed on a 16-meter-wide western crater. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University. Before image acquired after image acquired. So that’s not the explanation for this one.” Before and after photos at the location of the newly formed craters. Astronomer Bill Gray, who first discovered the object and predicted its lunar demise back in January, explains that the booster “came in at about 15 degrees from vertical. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Why a double crater? While somewhat unusual – none of the Apollo S-IVBs that hit the Moon created double craters – they’re not impossible to create, especially if an object hits at a low angle. The LRO images, taken May 25th, revealed not just a single crater, but a double crater formed by the rocket’s impact, posing a new mystery for astronomers to unravel. In fact, as Ars Technica reports, that one is expected to come crashing down as well - in what it called yet another game of 'find the falling Chinese rocket.The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) – NASA’s eye-in-the-sky in orbit around the Moon – has found the crash site of the mystery rocket booster that slammed into the far side of the Moon back on March 4th, 2022. Just this morning, a Chang Zheng 5B rocket launched the country's second space station module in less than a year.

Chinese rocket crash moon full#

Which is more relevant than ever before, given that the country's space program is in full swing. With SpaceX leading the charge on developing and perfecting reusable rocket technologies, it's true that the practice is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Then last year, other debris landed in the Indian Ocean not far from the Maldives.Īt the time, NASA administrator Bill Nelson accused China of 'failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris.' Reckless Actions In May 2020, pieces of a Chinese rocket struck and damaged properties in Ivory Coast. Earlier this year, debris from a Long March 5B rocket burned up in the atmosphere, to fall into the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Chinese rocket crash moon series#

It's the latest in a long series of uncontrolled reentries by China. Western officials have long criticized the practice, saying it's not only environmentally unfriendly compared to reusable rocket parts, but also potentially dangerous for anybody living within the confines of the projected landing zones. Long March rockets and boosters have historically been non-reusable, which means they often end up making their out-of-control descent through the Earth's atmosphere. The piece likely belonged to a rocket China launched on Saturday to deliver satellites into orbit, but officials have yet to weigh in.

The images show a massive metal structure lodged vertically in some freshly tilled soil, sticking out some 20 to 30 feet. Why does this keep happening? Littering Rocket PartsĪ gigantic piece of a Chinese Long March 2D rocket has seemingly plummeted back down to Earth and lodged itself in a crop in the northwestern province of Gansu, as seen in images shared on Chinese social media.