Rocket on crash course with moon does not belong to SpaceX, report says
The massive rocket speeding through space on a collision course with the moon does not belong to SpaceX despite earlier reports and likely belongs to a spacecraft launched by China in 2014, according to a report on Saturday.
Ars Technica first reported on the mystery object discovered by Bill Gray, the developer of the astronomical software called Project Pluto. The report said Gray updated his website Saturday to show the correction after being flagged by a NASA engineer who questioned his earlier claim.
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Gray said he checked his data and said there is “good evidence” that the object is a Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 rocket stage that was launched in October 2014. The earlier theory was that the object was SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage, which launched on Feb. 11, 2015.
Gray wrote on his website that the object will “still hit the moon within a few kilometers of the predicted spot on 2022 March 4 at 12:25 UTC, within a few seconds of the predicted time.”
Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/.OWfXb4n5yY1JJjMFTFf1w–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTM5Ng–/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/yzFC99e4fvSMRP.bwETDyg–~B/aD03MDM7dz0xMjUwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://media.zenfs.com/en/fox_news_text_979/8f559a0e820a4aac395a4ebc1759a7fb”/>![A SpaceX Falcon9 rocket blasts off the launch pad on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015, carrying the NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft that will orbit between Earth and the sun, providing advanced warning of extreme emissions from the sun which can effect power grids and satellites close to earth. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) <span class=]()
Mark Robinson, a professor of earth and space exploration at Arizona State University, told the New York Times earlier this month that the object, which was believed to weigh about four tons and traveling a 5,700 mph, would create creater about 65 feet in diameter.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox News.
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