An astronomer has discovered that the Chinese Long March 3C rocket, rather than SpaceX’s Falcon 9, is on track to collide with the Moon.
The scientist, Bill Gray, created the Project Pluto software, It is useful to track near-Earth objects.
Uncertainty fuelled the anxiety over the rocket’s orbital decay and China’s failure to provide greater assurances.
“It would be a little strange if the second stage went right past the Moon, while DSCOVR was in another part of the sky. There’s always some separation, but this was suspiciously large,” Gray explained.
According to his findings, an object known as WE0913A will collide with the far side of the Moon on March 4, 2022, at roughly 12:25 p.m. UTC.
However, if any of the remaining fuel leaks out and pushes the spacecraft about, it may induce orbital alterations.
Components of China’s biggest rocket, Long March 5B landed in the Indian Ocean. The majority of its components are destroyed upon re-entry into the atmosphere. The 22.5-ton core of China’s newest space station had launched.
The former Soviet space station, Salyut 7 crashed uncontrollably in 1991. Since that, the 18-tonne rocket that fell in May was the largest debris to fall uncontrollably.
The Long March was the 5B variant’s second deployment since its maiden flight in May 2020. The first Long March 5B fragments landed on Ivory Coast, causing damage to multiple structures.
“Western Hype”
After Beijing declared it had lost control, China’s first space station, Tiangong-1, plummeted into the Pacific Ocean in 2016. The space agency successfully decommissioned Tiangong-2, its second outpost, in the atmosphere in 2019.
The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid, dismissed concerns that the rocket was “out of control” and could do harm as “Western hype.”
“It is common practice across the world for upper stages of rockets to burn up while reentering the atmosphere,” Wang Wenbin said at a regular media briefing. He is a spokesman at China’s foreign ministry.
“To my knowledge, the upper stage of this rocket has been deactivated, which means most of its parts will burn up upon re-entry, making the likelihood of damage to aviation or ground facilities and activities extremely low,” he added.
The rocket sent an unmanned Tianhe module into orbit. It had living accommodations for three crew members on a permanent Chinese space station. Ten additional missions will also follow to complete the station by 2022.