Amateur astronomers first pointed to SpaceX, but then recalculated that it was probably from a Chinese lunar mission in 2014 (Chang’e 5-T1). China has disputed this, saying the accelerator in question “entered the Earth’s atmosphere safely and was completely incinerated”.
Bill Gray, an independent astronomer who created software to track objects in space, had to work backwards and calculate an approximate orbit because, although China announced and televised its launches, he did not reveal their routes.
“I am 99.9% sure this is China 5-T1,” he told the BBC. Previously, he thought it was a SpaceX accelerator.
Faeces of astronauts in zippered bags left on the moon
There are hundreds of debris on the moon’s surface, as well as lunar apparatus and even astronauts’ feces in zippered bags.
The rocket accelerators from the Apollo missions left a series of craters about 40 yards wide on the surface of the moon. In 2019, the crashed Israeli spacecraft Beresheet scattered debris on the lunar surface.
At least 47 NASA rockets have made “spacecraft strikes” on the moon, according to data from Arizona State University for 2016.
However, “no other rocket strikes on the moon have created double craters,” NASA said.
Japan, South Korea, Russia, India and the United Arab Emirates aim to send missions to the moon next year, while the United States plans to land the first woman there in 2024.
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