[14] In February and March 2015, the DFH-3A "service module" performed two "virtual target" rendezvous tests for the future Chang'e 5 mission.

In April 2015, the small monitoring camera was used to obtain higher resolution photos of Chang'e 5's landing zone.

China's foreign ministry has denied this identification, stating that the booster had already burned up in the Earth's atmosphere (albeit referring to the later Chang'e 5 mission in his answer).

[22][18] The US Space Command confirmed the third stage never reentered in Earth's atmosphere,[23] and a compatible item is now present on the Space-Track catalogue as object 85900.

[25] In June 2022, a compatible double crater was found by the LROC team at the same location previously estimated,[26] and later by Chandrayaan-2 OHRC.

Amateur radio operators were encouraged via prize incentives to receive the transmissions and send the results back to LuxSpace.