NASA took the world by storm yesterday after announcing that Mars has flowing water on its surface. Officials were therefore embarrassed to retract their statement this morning, after it was discovered that NASA mistook the September 28 blood moon for Mars.

Back in 2009, water molecules were discovered in the polar regions of the moon. NASA quickly forgot about the discovery, stating that the moon really wasn’t that interesting anymore after landing on it for the hundredth time. “Been there, done that,” said one NASA official.

On that fateful Monday night, NASA mistook the blood moon for Mars, claiming it looked just like the red planet when seen through a telescope. Consequently, officials mistook the water molecules discovered on the moon back in the 2009 for flowing water on the surface of Mars.

“Everything looks the same when viewed through a telescope”

“It’s an easy mistake to make,” said Charles Bolden, the Administrator of NASA. “No one really pays much attention to the moon at NASA anymore, so it was easy to mistake the blood moon for the red planet. Everything looks the same when viewed through a telescope.”

Bolden requested that we retract the end of his last comment, fearing that it could be misinterpreted for cosmic racism. “Shit, I’m just full of gaffes this week,” he added.

NASA was expected to launch a new telescope, the Hubba Bubba, in 2019, which would be able to peer even farther into the depths of space than the world-renowned Hubble Telescope. Due to the colossal blunder, however, NASA officials have decided to cut funding from the Hubba Bubba program and invest in a good pair of glasses.

“You say moon, I say Mars”

“We’re really in no shape to observe what lies on the edge of the universe when we can’t even correctly observe what’s right in front of our noses,” Bolden told sources. “Hubble space pictures are overrated anyways. We really just take them to release a new space calendar each year. That’s how NASA makes most of its money now since the U.S. space shuttle program was cut back in 2011,” Bolden stated bitterly.

“I really don’t see what’s the big deal about yesterday’s blunder anyways. It’s all just space rock and shit. You say moon, I say Mars. Does it really make a difference?”