NASA successfully tests SLS rocket that will help Artemis astronauts reach the moon “I’d give at least 80% and maybe 90% odds.” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, said identifying space junk is “never easy” in deep-space orbit, but he said Gray’s new identification was likely right. Need for official monitoring of space junk The rocket will likely disintegrate on impact and create a crater about 10 to 20 meters (32.8 feet to 65.6 feet) across. However, the impact will be on the far side of the moon and not visible from Earth. The rocket stage is expected to hit the moon at 7:26 a.m. ![]() Gray said he subsequently reviewed his data and has now landed on a different explanation: He said that the object was the third stage of the Chinese Long March 3C rocket used to launch its lunar orbiter in 2014. This update results from analysis of the object’s orbits in the 2016 – 2017 timeframe.” “It is not a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage from a mission in 2015 as previously reported. ![]() “Analysis led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies indicates the object expected to impact the far side of the Moon March 4 is likely the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 booster launched in 2014,” according to a NASA statement released Monday. There’s always some separation, but this was suspiciously large,” Gray said. It would be a little strange if the second stage went right past the moon, while DSCOVR was in another part of the sky. “Jon pointed out that JPL’s Horizons system showed that the DSCOVR spacecraft’s trajectory did not go particularly close to the moon. Over the weekend, however, Gray said he had gotten the object’s origins wrong after communicating with Jon Giorgini of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which doesn’t track space junk but does keep careful track of a lot of active spacecraft, including DSCOVR. His assessment was widely accepted by other space experts and NASA, which said it was monitoring the rocket’s trajectory. The object had about the brightness we would expect, and had showed up at the expected time and moving in a reasonable orbit,” Gray said on his website. ![]() “I and others came to accept the identification with the second stage as correct. (Photo by Laurent EMMANUEL / AFP) (Photo credit should read LAURENT EMMANUEL/AFP via Getty Images) Laurent Emmanuel/AFP/Getty ImagesĪ rocket booster could crash into the moon in the next few weeks The Moon is steadily shrinking, causing wrinkling on its surface and quakes, according to an analysis of imagery captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) published Monday May 13, 2019. TOPSHOT - A photo taken on shows a view of the moon in Cannes, southern France.
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