https://canada.postuszero.com/technology/11813/Do-you-remember-that-rocket-that-was-going-to-crash-into-the-moon-Scientists-think-they%E2%80%99ve-found-the-crater.htmlA bit of detective work led Gray to determine that this was actually the top stage of China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission, a 2014 technology demonstration mission that laid the groundwork for Chang’ e 5, which successfully returned a lunar sample to Earth in 2020. (Incidentally, China recently announced that it would follow up this sample return mission with a more ambitious Mars sample return project later this decade). Jonathan McDowell offered corroborating evidence that seemed to bolster this new theory of object identity.
The mystery was solved.
Except that, a few days later, the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs claimed that it was not about their propellant: it had desorbed and had crashed in the ocean shortly after its launch.
As it stands, Gray remains convinced that it was the Change 5-T1 booster that hit the Moon, suggesting the Foreign Secretary made an honest mistake, confusing Chang’e 5-T1 with the Chang ‘e 5 of the same name (whose booster sank in the ocean).
As for the new double crater on the Moon, the fact that the LRO team was able to find the impact site so quickly is an impressive feat in itself. It was discovered just months after impact, with a little help from Gray and JPL, who each independently narrowed the search area down to a few tens of kilometers. By comparison, the impact site of Apollo 16 S-IVB took more than six years of painstaking research to find.
