In 2022, an Ownerless Rocket Crashed on the Moon—Everyone Thought It Was Elon Musk’s, but a New Study Confirms Its True Origin

A mysterious piece of space debris slammed into the Moon in March 2022, punching twin 29-meter craters and igniting a frenzy of speculation. Though many blamed SpaceX’s Falcon 9 upper stage, new trajectory and photometric analysis confirms it was China’s Long March 3C from the Chang’e 5-T1 mission.

A Crater Signed by SpaceX… or China?

I still remember the thrill of watching amateur astronomers trace a fast-moving speck between Earth and the Moon—only to realize it was headed for an unexpected rendezvous with the lunar surface. On March 4, 2022, that object punched a double crater near Hertzsprung Basin, each pit about 29 meters across¹. Initial chatter on social media and science forums pinned the blame on SpaceX’s discarded Falcon 9 upper stage from the DSCOVR mission, launched in 2015². Given how often Elon Musk’s rockets dominate headlines, the assumption felt almost instinctive.

Did you know? The DSCOVR Falcon 9 upper stage entered a solar orbit after release, making a return to Earth or the Moon extremely unlikely—yet viral posts still linked it to the 2022 impact.

If Not SpaceX, Then It’s China

Whispers soon surfaced of an alternative suspect: China’s Long March 3C third stage from the Chang’e 5-T1 probe, which flew in October 2014³. That mission tested re-entry procedures ahead of a sample-return flight, adding a tantalizing twist. With no clear owner stamped on this cosmic tumbleweed, experts from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to the Catalina Sky Survey catalogued it simply as WE0913A—a piece of space debris on a collision course with our satellite.

The curtain finally lifted thanks to a detailed analysis published in the Planetary Science Journal. Tanner Campbell, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, and his team dove into the object’s trajectory and its shimmering flicker under sunlight. “Our comparison of light curves and orbital paths matched Chang’e 5-T1’s third stage almost perfectly,” Campbell noted⁴. Contrary to earlier claims by the China National Space Administration that the stage burned up during Earth re-entry, the data showed it drifted all the way to lunar impact.

Even more intriguing was the fragment’s stable rotation, an unusual trait for spent rocket bodies, suggesting onboard structures or instruments lent it extra gyroscopic steadiness. This steadiness likely created the twin craters rather than a single blast pit.

The revelation underscores how crowded and complex near-Earth space has become—where rockets from multiple nations can leave permanent marks on our celestial neighbor. As we push deeper into a new era of lunar exploration, from NASA’s Artemis program to China’s Chang’e series, tracking every piece of hardware is crucial for safety, transparency, and international cooperation. After all, every rocket stage we launch might just carve a new chapter in the Moon’s long history.

Footnotes

1. DNB, “Lunar Impact Crater Catalog”; https://d-nb.info/1216633495/34

2. Phys.Org, “Space Debris Catalog Entry WE0913A”; https://phys.org/news/2023-11-we0913a-moon-impactor-chinese-booster.html

3. Wikipedia, “Chang’e 5-T1 Mission Overview”; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_5-T1

4. Planetary Science Journal, “Trajectory and Photometric Analysis of Lunar Impact WE0913A”; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/acffb8/pdf