AN out of control chunk of rocket is expected to crash into the Moon tomorrow.
The rocket booster, which is about the size of a school bus, has been a worrisome piece of space debris for around eight years now.
Read our Rocket Moon Crash live blog for the very latest news and updates…
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The new rocket was first spotted by Bill Gray, who writes the popular Project Pluto software to track near-Earth objects.
He reported that the junk was a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage launched from Florida in February 2015.
However, Bill later retracted his claim and said the rocket part most likely belonged to China. China has since denied the accusation.
Whoever the chunk of rocket belongs to, it’s about to do some damage to the lunar surface.
There’s no need to worry for the Moon though, it’s actually been the victim of multiple space debris crashes.
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Luna 2
The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 is thought to be the first manmade spacecraft to crash into the Moon.
This happened in 1959, eight months after the failed mission of Luna 1.
Luna 1 was supposed to reach the Moon but it missed and is still floating in space somewhere.
India’s Chandrayaan-2 Moon lander
Every Moon mission comes with the risk of crashing something into the Moon.
This happened with India’s Chandrayaan-2 Moon lander, also called Vikram.
The lander lost communication with Earth and crashed into the lunar surface in September 2019.
It was supposed to descend gently onto the Moon’s south pole but crash landed by accident.
Nasa’s Snoopy module
The US space agency has also been responsible for crashing items into the Moon.
Apollo 10 dropped half of its Snoopy module onto the Moon in May 1969.
Nasa also intentionally crashed its LCROSS mission into the Moon in 2009.
It’s unlikely the Moon has suffered too much from all these crashes but it does have a few more craters.
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