The boffins believe the smash shows how important it is to monitor space trash further out beyond Earth, especially as the rate of lunar missions increases. It may have been built to support the rocket's structure, or possibly a separate instrument for some other purpose. What exactly the payload was, however, remains unknown. That's what leads us to think that there must have been something more mounted to the front,' he added. 'We performed a torque balance analysis, which showed that this amount of weight would have moved the rocket's center of gravity by a few inches – it wasn't nearly enough to account for its stable rotation. 'We know the booster had an instrument deck mounted to its top end, but those weigh only about 60 pounds or so,' Campbell said. US Space Force unit to monitor region beyond Earth's geosynchronous orbit.

Chinese rocket junk may have just smashed into Moon.Whatever hit the Moon in March, it left this weird double crater.The academics reckon it was carrying something to balance the weight of its engines, which each reportedly weighs 1,200 pounds (544.3 kilograms) without fuel. Instead of wobbling, like a normal spent rocket booster, it spun in a stable manner. Another hint that the object was carrying something extra was the way it tumbled through space.

Spacex falcon 9 crash landing