“What’s that?” Verum said as she peeked into the telescope. The night sky was clear. Orak had brought out his telescope and the four Mysticals were stargazing.
“Let me have a look,” Orak said and he adjusted the telescope.
“Oh, it’s a part of the rocket everyone is talking about,” Orak said. He stepped aside so Scorch and Felix could have a look as well.
“What rocket?” Scorch said.
Orak explained, “In January, astronomers found a piece of machinery on its way to crash into the Moon. It was first identified by data analyst (people who study data) Bill Gray as a Falcon 9 booster from Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX. It was launched in 2015.
But now it has been reidentified. There’s an 80% chance that the object is from the 2014 Chinese rocket launch. China had launched its Chang’e 5-T1 mission in 2014. It sent a small spacecraft to the Moon.
It will be the first known rocket collision with the Moon that cannot be controlled!” Orak added.
“Will there be a lot of damage to the Moon?” Felix said.
“Don’t worry, Felix. The part of the rocket will explode when it hits the Moon, but the impact of the crash will be minor,” Orak said.
“The part of the rocket is kind of space debris, isn’t it?” Scorch said.
“You’re right, Scorch, it is space debris. Space debris is rocket parts, old and broken satellites, metal pieces, etc. that orbit the Earth. They are junk,” Orak said, “Space debris that is near the Earth is tracked by United States military’s Space Force. But the space debris farther away is not observed.
A few volunteers track the space debris on their own time. So, it’s difficult to cross-check and mistakes can happen in identifying the object.”
“The rocket is set to crash into the Earth on March 4, 2022!” Orak added.