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Mystery rocket crashed into Moon, NASA baffled who was behind launch

32 points by ck2 4y ago

matt321 4y ago
- k12sosse 4y ago
- dang 4y ago
  Please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN, and please don't use HN for ideological battle. We ban accounts that do these things because they're not what this site is for and destroy what it is for. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
leobg 4y ago
Wasn't that part of the plot in "For All Mankind"? That they identified a crash site on the moon. In the series, it was, of course, the Russians.
tailspin2019 4y ago
> The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end. Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. Could the “unexplained mass” at the pointy end have been some sort of warhead?
- BizarroLand 4y ago
  If I were a crazy person who believed this stuff I would guess that it was rogue AI escaping to the Moon by "accident". That would be great if it were true.
- lumost 4y ago
  Would be highly unusual/nonsensical to launch a warhead on a lunar trajectory. It’s unnecessary for an icbm to have the delta v to reach the moon. However it would make a great plot for a broken arrow movie!
  - tailspin2019 4y ago
    I guess I was thinking it wasn’t an intentional trajectory but some sort of “test” gone wrong… but I think you’re right - it’s probably a bit far fetched!
CommieBobDole 4y ago
The title of the article makes it seem like it's some mysterious, unknown rocket that could have come from anywhere, but in fact (as the body of the article admits) there's just some uncertainty as to which of two specific missions it comes from; it was initially thought to be from a SpaceX launch, but further analysis indicated that it was probably a Chinese launch. China denies this and says that the rocket stage from that launch re-entered and burned up, so that's pretty much the mystery.
aerostable_slug 4y ago
"NASA unable to release space situational awareness information due to classified sources and methods. USSF has no comment. News at 11."

32 points by ck2 4y ago

k12sosse 4y ago
dang 4y ago
Please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN, and please don't use HN for ideological battle. We ban accounts that do these things because they're not what this site is for and destroy what it is for. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

Wasn't that part of the plot in "For All Mankind"? That they identified a crash site on the moon. In the series, it was, of course, the Russians.

tailspin2019 4y ago

> The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end. Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. Could the “unexplained mass” at the pointy end have been some sort of warhead?

BizarroLand 4y ago
If I were a crazy person who believed this stuff I would guess that it was rogue AI escaping to the Moon by "accident". That would be great if it were true.
lumost 4y ago
Would be highly unusual/nonsensical to launch a warhead on a lunar trajectory. It’s unnecessary for an icbm to have the delta v to reach the moon. However it would make a great plot for a broken arrow movie!
- tailspin2019 4y ago
  I guess I was thinking it wasn’t an intentional trajectory but some sort of “test” gone wrong… but I think you’re right - it’s probably a bit far fetched!

CommieBobDole 4y ago

The title of the article makes it seem like it's some mysterious, unknown rocket that could have come from anywhere, but in fact (as the body of the article admits) there's just some uncertainty as to which of two specific missions it comes from; it was initially thought to be from a SpaceX launch, but further analysis indicated that it was probably a Chinese launch. China denies this and says that the rocket stage from that launch re-entered and burned up, so that's pretty much the mystery.

aerostable_slug 4y ago

"NASA unable to release space situational awareness information due to classified sources and methods. USSF has no comment. News at 11."