The missile made headlines in January after it disappeared last month. According to the calculations of astronomers, it turned out that the object was on a collision course with the Moon. Bill Gray, creator of Skywatch Project Plutothen used data from collective sources to calculate that the rocket’s stage would collapse there on March 4.

At the time, experts believed it was Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon9 rocket that launched in February 2015. Gray Reports now however It is unlikely to be a SpaceX missile. According to Gray, it will likely instead be a phase of China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission, the predecessor of the Chinese probe that returned a piece of the Moon to Earth in 2020.

There is no conclusive evidence

Gray says he originally thought it was a SpaceX rocket from DSCOVRThe mission went because it was possible to see the object near the moon two days after the launch of that mission. Other astronomers thought the same thing, so while there was no conclusive evidence, they assumed it was a SpaceX rocket.

New data now shows that this is highly unlikely. According to astronomer John Giorgini, the DSCOVR rocket was not close to the Moon at the time. This prompted Gray to rethink what an object is.

In the end, he calculated that the body was likely to be part of the Chinese Chang’e 5T1 missile. This mission was launched in October 2013, but so far no one has recovered the piece of space junk. Gray says the object is still on a collision course with the Moon.

The growing problem of space waste

Waste in space is becoming an increasing problem. For example, last week NASA spokesmen said they were concerned about Elon Musk’s many Starlink satellites. It happened after SpaceX lost about 40 satellites in a geomagnetic storm. According to the company, they simply burned up in the atmosphere, so they would not have produced waste in space.

China also criticized SpaceX for the same reason last year. However, the country has already had problems with discarded objects in space. At the end of last year, the International Space Station had to take parts from an abandoned Chinese satellite evades†

over there According to the European Space Agency Already more than 36,500 objects larger than 10 cm are in orbit around the Earth. According to some astronomers, this could be space junk Serious consequences You have the future of space travel.