Posted: Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 10:19 AM ET (1519 GMT)
A rocket stage that will hit the far side of the Moon next month is now linked to a Chinese launch, not a SpaceX one. An astronomer who first noticed the impending collision last month said Saturday that he no longer thinks the object is the upper stage from the Falcon 9 launch of the DSCOVR spacecraft in 2015 but instead the Long March 3C launch of Chang'e-5 T1, a 2014 mission to test a return capsule for the Chang'e-5 lunar sample return mission. The trajectory is a better fit for the Chinese launch, he said. The incident illustrates the difficulties in tracking objects in cislunar space, an issue that the Defense Department has brought up in the last few years.

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