SpaceX Rocket Piece Expected to Crash Into Moon

A spent SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage, which has been drifting in space since its launch last year, was anticipated to crash into the moon early Wednesday morning. The object, roughly the size of a school bus and weighing 4 metric tons, was on a collision course with the lunar surface.

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What has happened is essentially a mixture of solar activity and gravity forces have put it on a path toward the moon.

Launched in January 2025 to send a lunar lander toward the moon, the rocket's second stage required more thrust than typical missions. This resulted in the stage not falling back to Earth as usual but remaining in orbit. Astronomers determined earlier this year that the uncontrolled stage, having expended its fuel, was on a trajectory that would end on the moon due to a combination of solar activity and gravitational forces.

The impact was expected to occur around 2:35 a.m. ET (0635 GMT) at a speed of 5,400 miles per hour, targeting Einstein Crater on the moon's western limb. While the crash was unlikely to be captured live by orbiting spacecraft, scientists expected to confirm it hours later by analyzing telescope images. The impact was described as unintentional by SpaceX.

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This may be of some, probably minor, scientific interest, and we may learn some things from it.

While the event is rare and may provide minor scientific interest, it underscores concerns about the growing problem of space junk. Unlike typical stages that burn up in Earth's atmosphere or crash into the ocean, this piece of hardware became uncontrolled space debris. Experts note that such impacts pose no danger but highlight a "certain carelessness about how leftover space hardware is disposed of."

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It doesn't present any danger to anyone, though it does highlight a certain carelessness about how leftover space hardware (space junk) is disposed of.