New Study Reveals Mysterious Rocket Crash on Far Side of the Moon Originate from ChinaThe origin of a mysterious rocket that crashed into the far side of the moon in March 2022 has been confirmed in a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal. While scientists have established that the rocket was the spent upper stage of China’s Chang’e 5-T1, it has also been suggested that it may have been carrying an unknown payload. First detected in 2015 as WE0913A, it was initially believed to be the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket launched by SpaceX in 2015. However, subsequent observations and data analysis pointed towards the debris being the upper stage of the Chinese rocket.
Images of the debris show that it created two overlapping craters upon impact – a phenomenon that was unexpected. After studying the change in the way light reflected from the debris and analyzing the pattern of craters it left behind, it was found that the rocket’s mass distribution was unlike that of any other. Researchers have not been able to decipher what the payload could be.
This may be a first instance of unintentional space debris colliding with the moon, but it is not the first time that human-made objects have crashed there, with NASA previously sending the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and the Apollo programme Saturn V rockets hurtling at the moon for various research purposes.
