Quote:
Originally Posted by BenGun
A couple of years ago, the third stage of the Staurn V was found to be circling Earth; the very third stage that sent Apollo to the moon. So how can it be that the third stage that pushed the lunar lander to the moon turned up in Earth's orbit?
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After the TLI burn (the one that sent Apollo to the Moon) the third stage was reignited to push it into a solar orbit, in order to get it well out of the way. Orbital mechanics dictated its path from then on. Since it started out somewhere near Earth orbit it will return to that distance from the sun, and it just so happened that thirty years later Earth was in the right place to meet it again and for its gravity to have an effect on the orbit of the stage.
Ask him where he thinks it's been all this time if it wasn't as I described. If it stayed in Earth orbit it would have been a naked eye object for the last thirty years.