Discarded SpaceX Rocket on Collision Course with the Moon

A discarded SpaceX rocket is on a high-speed collision course with the moon. The rocket’s upper stage will unintentionally slam into the lunar surface on Wednesday, carving out a crater and sending up a plume of dust and rubble that scientists and skygazers are eager to observe. The abandoned rocket segment measures approximately 40 feet and weighs around 10,000 pounds. It was launched on Jan. 15, 2025, carrying two private lunar landers. One of them—Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost—became the first private spacecraft to achieve a fully successful lunar touchdown. The other, Japan-based ispace's lander, crashed. Space tracking expert Bill Gray predicts an impact speed of 5,400 mph—seven times the speed of sound—near Einstein Crater on the moon's sunlit western limb. The impact will pack the equivalent energy of three tons of TNT. The eastern portions of the U.S. and Canada, along with much of South America, will have the best views of the event. It was never SpaceX's intent to hit the moon. Space experts said the crash could have been avoided if the upper stage had been nudged into orbit around the sun. This will be the second dead rocket known to crash into the moon accidentally. A Chinese rocket segment dug out a pair of craters on the lunar far side in 2022. Los Alamos National Laboratory's Benjamin Fernando anticipates an impact crater nearly 90 feet across and 16 feet deep—too small to see from Earth but visible to spacecraft. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea's Danuri lunar orbiter will gather before-and-after shots of the crash scene. Danuri will stray within a mile or two of the SpaceX rocket just two minutes before impact. The impact flash, lasting less than a second, will likely be too dim to see. However, the stream of ejected material could stretch for several miles into space and remain visible to telescopes for tens of minutes. Scientists are encouraging observations by professionals and amateurs alike. "Part of the re