China says a missile that will hit the moon is not Chang’e’s mission

The stage of an old missile, which is on its way to collide with Far side of the moon, does not belong to the vehicle used to launch the Chang’e 5 T1 mission. This is what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Wenbin said. According to him, the monitoring conducted by the state shows that the upper stage related to the Chang’e 5 mission entered the Earth’s atmosphere and was completely burned up.

The Chang’e 5 T1 It was a test mission for Chang’e 5, More ambitious and focused on collecting and returning lunar samples. When asked about the stage of the rocket on its way to the moon, Wang said, “China’s aerospace endeavors always comply with international law. We are committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the missile’s activities in outer space, and are ready for exchanges and cooperation with all parties.”

Tracking data obtained by the US Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron indicates that the object designated “calling65B” returned to the atmosphere In 2015, that is, one year after its launch. If, on the one hand, this supports China’s claim, the data brings more mystery to the nature of the object, which has attracted international attention in recent months.

This issue also sparks discussions about space debris and how to track it down – mainly because of the risks it poses to manned and unmanned spacecraft, in the event of collisions. In the event of the collision, which is supposed to occur in March, there are no foreseeable risks to satellites and other spacecraft. who study the moon.

How was the rocket on its way to the moon discovered?

In January, astronomer Bill Gray announced that the object identified as “WE0913A” was following a trajectory. He’s going to hit the moon On the fourth of March. At first, he attached the body to the Falcon 9 missile that he launched SpaceX In 2015. Early in February, Gray revised his calculations and suggested it was something different.

After analyzing the data, I realize that The body more closely matches the upper stage of the Long March 3C rocket, used to launch the Chang’e-5 mission in 2014 – at the time, he described it as “situational evidence” of the nature of the object. The description of the object identity was supported by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at NASA.

According to JPL’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, WE0913A was likely the booster rocket that launched the Chang’e 5 T1 mission. Then, spectroscopic analyzes by students at the University of Arizona seem to confirm, in fact, that the object appears to be from the China expedition.

If the object actually belongs to China, this indicates the scale of the challenges involved in observing objects in deep space – in his posts on WE0913A, Gray stated that garbage control In deep space it’s not a big concern, as the US Space Force works with tracking objects in low orbits.

source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Across: space news