NASA Is Cracking Open a 50-Year-Old Vacuum-Sealed Tube of Lunar Gas And Soil

The Apollo missions to the Moon brought a total of 2,196 rock samples to Earth. But NASA has only just started opening one of the last ones, collected 50 years ago. For all that time, some tubes were kept sealed so that they could be studied years later, with the help of the latest technical … Read more

For The First Time, There Has Been an Unplanned Spacecraft Crash With The Moon

Add one more crater to the long list of pockmarks on the lunar surface. According to orbital calculations, a rocket hurtling through space for years crashed into the Moon on Friday, but the strike wasn’t directly observed, and there might be a wait for photographic evidence.   The impact would have taken place at 7:25 … Read more

What an Unplanned Rocket Crash on The Moon Can Teach Us About Impact Physics in Space

On March 4, 2022, a lonely, spent rocket booster will smack into the surface of the Moon at nearly 6,000 mph. Once the dust has settled, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will move into position to get an up-close view of the smoldering crater and hopefully shed some light on the mysterious physics of planetary impacts. … Read more

Mystery Rocket Will Crash Into The Moon Tomorrow, And Scientists Are Watching Closely

On 4 March 2022, a lonely, spent rocket booster will smack into the surface of the Moon at nearly 6,000 mph (9,656 km/h). Once the dust has settled, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will move into position to get an up-close view of the smoldering crater and hopefully shed some light on the mysterious physics of … Read more

Looming Rocket Impact Forecasts Trouble for Future Lunar Exploration

On March 4 a four-metric-ton spent rocket stage will end its uncontrolled, 7.5-year voyage through space with a flourish: it will slam into the far side of the moon, close to the 570-kilometer-wide crater Hertzsprung, at about 9,300 kilometers per hour, creating a modest crater of its own. Earth is no stranger to space junk … Read more

Space junk: We don’t know whose rocket is about to hit the moon – that’s a problem

An old rocket will slam into the far side of the moon on 4 March and no one is accepting ownership of the space junk – similar objects could pose a safety risk for future crewed lunar missions Space 23 February 2022 By Jonathan O’Callaghan A representation of space junk in orbit around Earth ESA/ID&Sense/ONiRiXEL … Read more

Moon mystery: Who launched the rocket that will slam into the lunar far side?

There’s an ongoing saga about the object that will smash into the far side of the moon early next month. First thought to be the upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the DSCOVR Earth-observation spacecraft in February 2015, it was then tagged as a leftover from the launch of China’s Chang’e … Read more

Lunar Rover Discovers Mysterious Glass Spheres on The Far Side of The Moon

China’s Yutu-2 mission has made another fascinating discovery on the far side of the Moon. Glistening amid the dry, gray dust, the rover’s panoramic camera picked out two small intact spheres of translucent glass.   Such spherules can record information about the Moon’s history, including the composition of its mantle and impact events. Yutu-2 was … Read more

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 … Read more

Mystery Deepens as China Denies Owning Space Junk Set to Crash Into Moon

China on Monday denied responsibility for a rocket set to slam into the Moon, after experts said the piece of space junk likely came from Beijing’s lunar exploration program. Astronomers initially thought the wayward object was a chunk of a SpaceX rocket that blasted off seven years ago and was abandoned in space after completing … Read more