How a Lost Apollo Rocket Returned to Earth

On September 3, 2002, amateur astronomer Bill Yeung discovered an object that he believed was a never-before-seen asteroid in a rapid orbit around Earth. While it’s easy for massive planets such as Jupiter to frequently capture objects like asteroids and comets, Earth is smaller and has less gravitational oomph with which to influence interplanetary passersby.
Yeung’s discovery, formally named J002E3, became the focus of an intense analysis with a unique result. The object was not an asteroid captured by Earth in a cosmic game of coincidence. This was a relic of humanity’s space race: an Apollo-era rocket that had been placed in orbit around the sun — and then returned to Earth.
An Unusual Discovery
Yeung was already well known in astronomy circles for his prolific discovery of other asteroids — J002E3 was simply one more to add to his collection. But astronomers at the Minor Planet Center quickly realized that J002E3 was not an asteroid. Its unusual orbit made some suspect that it was, in fact, human-made — a leftover piece of space hardware.

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