An unidentified object called WE0913A, which collided with the back of the Moon in March 2022, turned out to be part of a Chinese Long March launch vehicle.
At first, it was mistaken for a part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Then the object attracted the attention of scientists from the University of Arizona, the California Institute of Technology, the Pluto Project, and the Institute of Planetary Sciences.
Experts conducted careful observations of the object’s trajectory using ground-based telescopes and concluded that WE0913A is part of the body of a Chinese missile used in the Chang’e 5-T1 mission in 2014.
At the same time, they found signs that the abandoned part of the rocket probably carried an “undisclosed additional payload.”
The movement of the object during its fall to the Moon aroused the interest of scientists. The object seemed to be rotating in an organized rolling motion rather than swinging. This indicates that the rocket’s stage was balanced by a counterweight of considerable size for the two engines, each weighing 544 kilograms. According to Tanner Campbell, the first author of the study, this indicates that there must have been something else in front of the step.
In addition, scientists noted the formation of an unusual double crater on the Moon after the collision of WE0913A with its surface. This incident was the first time that a double crater was observed, indicating the presence of two approximately equal masses that were at a distance from each other.
The question of what constituted the “undisclosed additional payload” remains open. Scientists do not rule out the possibility that these could be additional tools, auxiliary structures, or something else.
