NASA to Track Rogue Rocket's Moon Crater Grave on March 4; China Denies Ownership of Rocket

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will track the so-called 'crater grave' from the upcoming impact of the rogue rocket into the moon on Friday, March 4. This came after NASA projected that it will hit the moon's far side, a region of pitch-black on the lunar's opposite side.

The rocket and its immediate impact upon crashing will not be immediately detectible by NASA and all of Earth's space-detecting equipment. As a result, NASA is currently working on a potential follow-up operation to locate and track the expected impact site or crater grave.

The space object had its root as a misidentified rocket from SpaceX during a space launch in 2015. It was then attributed to belonging to China as part of their space mission in 2014. However, the latest updates suggest that China denied ownership of the object.

Crater Grave and Far Side of the Moon

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will be able to navigate and observe the far side but it will not instantly cover the impact site of the space junk due to challenges pertaining to visibility and distance, notably the exact coordinates of the would-be crash site.

Yet, NASA acknowledged that the search for the impact crater will take at least several weeks or months, according to a NASA spokesperson's email to Space.com-cited by Live Science. Furthermore, NASA is aiming to determine if the impact will cause any changes to the moon's environment.

If the LRO discovered the crater grave, it may pose as an onset of further understanding the lunar environment-as part of NASA's plan to bring astronauts into the moon by the end of the 2020s under the Artemis program.

Identity of the Rogue Rocket

On Feb. 21, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that the rocket does not belong to them. The Chinese government claimed that its rocket from the Chang'e 5-T1 space mission in 2014 had re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, as per South China Morning Post.

China's confirmation is reportedly a response to a US report from the Project Pluto site, claiming the initial assessment that the rocket belonged to Elon Musk's SpaceX launching in 2015 actually belonged to China.

In light of the recent clarification, the rocket's ownership will likely remain unidentified until it crashes into the moon this coming Friday; and there is a high potential that NASA would still find the crater grave after the lunar far side crash.

The Artemis Program

After the last man stepped off the moon in 1972, the NASA Artemis program, an international human spaceflight mission, aimed to send back humans into the moon. One of the primary objectives of the Artemis program is to create a lunar base camp that would serve as a hub for future space explorations.

The follow-up tracking operation of the crater grave after the rogue rocket's impact on the lunar far side surface-is considered to be unprecedented from the Artemis program's initial plan. However, NASA perceives the operation will also help the Artemis program.