The rocket fragment that will hit the Moon is of Chinese origin

Space debris that will hit the surface of the Moon on March 4 does not come from the upper stage of a Space X Falcon 9 in 2015 but from a Chinese heavy rocket launched in 2014.

This new identification has been reported by Bill J. Gray, the astronomer who originally linked the debris to the 2015 Falcon 9 launch that carried the mission into space. DSCVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) of the NOAA.

As reported by The Virtual Telescope Project, after some ideas it received from Jon Giorgini, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Gray now suggests that this rocket stage belongs to the Chang’e 5-T1 experimental lunar mission launched in October 2014, being its booster. The mission used a Long March 3C/G2 rocket.

The impact prediction for March 4 remains unchanged.

This would be the first time a spacecraft has unintentionally hit the Moon. Typically, during interplanetary missions, a rocket’s upper stage is sent into a heliocentric orbit, keeping it away from Earth and its Moon.