The Chinese Foreign Ministry denied on Monday that a spent rocket booster due to crash into the far side of the moon next month is a relic of a Chinese lunar mission from 2014. The launcher in issue, which NASA said was likely from China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission, “safely reached the Earth’s atmosphere and was entirely destroyed,” according to a spokesman.
“For the development of space affairs, China observes international law,” the official said. “China will preserve the long-term development of outer space operations and hold broader talks with relevant parties.”
Rocket Booster seems to belongs to SpaceX
The discovery of the derelict booster has reignited discussion about space trash and how to track it, with both unmanned and manned spacecraft at risk of colliding. The rocket booster’s impact on the moon, on the other hand, is not expected to cause any complications. An independent researcher initially identified the rocket booster as a used Falcon rocket stage from Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
However, NASA, the US space agency, claimed earlier this month that the debris was most likely leftover from China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission, which was launched in 2014. In October 2014, an unmanned Chang’e 5-T1 spacecraft was launched into space on a three-stage Long March 3C rocket to test the return capsule’s ability to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. The test was successful, and the capsule returned to Earth the following month.
The mission was part of China’s lunar exploration program, in which the country hopes to send humans to the moon in the future. Chinese lunar probe inventor Ye Peijian recently told state broadcaster CCTV that achieving this aim before 2030 was “absolutely conceivable.”