China says moonbound rocket stage was not from 2014 lunar mission: report

China says a rocket stage set to slam into the moon on March 4 isn’t from one of its missions, contradicting several recent reports.

Several independent observations suggest the rocket is from the Chang’e 5-T1 mission in 2014, following a misidentification that said the stage was part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite in February 2015. Yet officials at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs now say the rocket for Chang’e-5-T1 was destroyed shortly after launch, according to SpaceNews.