Fake asteroid? NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — What looks like an asteroid may just be an old rocket from a failed moon-landing mission more than 50 years ago. The newly spotted object is expected to get nabbed by Earth’s gravity and become a mini moon next month. NASA’s leading asteroid expert thinks it is the upper rocket stage from a 1966 mission. Observations as the object draws closer should help nail its identity. He speculates the object is the Centaur stage from NASA’s Surveyor 2 mission, dating back to 1966. It’s expected to shoot back out into its own orbit around the sun next March.