Astronomers believe they observed China-based rocket debris hit the surface of the moon in the early hours of March 4th. This is the same wayward rocket that was originally reported to belong to SpaceX.

Since the trajectory of the rocket piece took it to the dark side of the moon it was impossible to catch the event live.

Astronomers were able to confirm the piece of the rocket made a direct hit on the moon. They used satellite images from satellites that orbit the moon. These satellites photograph any anomaly or signs of a collision on the lunar surface.

Identified as China-based rocket

The rocket debris was first spotted by Bill Gray, using his Project Pluto software which tracks near-Earth objects.

This space junk has been erratically orbiting between the Earth and the moon for years.

In a cosmic case of mistaken identity, he reported that the junk was from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. And it appeared to be the upper stage piece launched from Florida by Elon Musk’s team in February 2015.

 Jon Giorgini, a scientist working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), alerted Gray to his error. Since JPL tracks all NASA’s missions, they knew this was not a SpaceX rocket.

Gray retracted his claim and identified the rocket as a third stage booster from a Long March 3C China-based rocket. And said it was most likely used to launch China’s Chang’e 5-T1 craft in October 2014.

China denies that this space junk came from them.

And since the object is estimated to be the size of a school bus it cannot be confirmed.

Experts created a physics-based simulation video showing how the crash likely happened. And the Virtual Telescope shows the allegedly China-based rocket debris on-course to hit the moon.