A SpaceX rocket stage will fall to the moon

On Wednesday morning, a piece of the Falcon 9 rocket will crash into the Moon at a speed of almost 8,700 km/h — this is the second stage abandoned by SpaceX in space a year and a half ago. No one planned the fall, but it will help scientists study the lunar soil.

The second stage of Falcon 9 sent landers from Firefly Aerospace and ispace to the Moon in January 2025, after which it remained drifting in an orbit intersecting the lunar trajectory, writes xrust. Astronomer Bill Gray, the author of popular software for tracking space objects, was the first to calculate that the wandering four-ton “blank” would sooner or later be drawn to the Moon, and since January he has been monitoring its course.

The impact will occur around 6:35 GMT near the Einstein Crater on the visible side of the Moon — the object will crash into the surface at a speed of about 8,700 km/h, knocking out a cloud of dust and rock. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to see the flash with the naked eye, but with a telescope you can.

SpaceX confirmed: the fall was unintentional, the collision was caused by a combination of solar activity and gravity, which deviated the stage from the calculated orbit. Similarly, back in the 1970s, NASA deliberately sent spent Saturn V stages to the Moon to study seismic waves from impacts. Now NASA and SpaceX are discussing how to avoid such accidental falls in the future: the agency is preparing a permanent lunar base under the Artemis program, and excess debris there will be completely inappropriate.

Sources:
abcnews.com
cnbc.com
space.com

Xrust SpaceX rocket stage will fall on the Moon