After 2001 DO47 was announced, Jon Giorgini of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory looked at the object's orbit. It looked like the object might be captured in a temporary Earth orbit. Sort of a second moon. More data arrived on Friday, Feb. 23, and researchers were anxious. The object was not behaving as predicted.
Nobody needs a near-Earth asteroid behaving erratically.
But Giorgini and others became more and more suspicious that the object might not be a real space rock. On Sunday at the Minor Planet Center, Williams finally got word on the true nature of the object from the local satellite expert Jonathan McDowell. Williams suggested that confirmation of the presumed engine firing be obtained from Giorgini before announcing anything. Giorgini agreed that an engine had been activated, and the announcement was made that 2001 D047 was a machine . DO47 is actually NASA's WIND spacecraft , launched in 1994.