A Four-Tonne Rocket Stage Crashes At Incredible Speed
The Moon has just copped a serious hit after a giant piece of SpaceX rocket junk came crashing into the lunar surface at an estimated 8,700km/h.
The discarded Falcon 9 rocket stage weighs around four tonnes and is roughly the size of a school bus, making this one very expensive piece of space junk to leave floating around.
How Did It End Up On A Collision Course?
The rocket was launched in January 2025 as part of a mission carrying two lunar landers.
However, instead of returning to Earth or burning up in the atmosphere, the upper stage was left drifting through space.
Over time, the Moon’s gravity pulled the rocket onto a collision course with the lunar surface, with the giant piece of hardware eventually slamming into the Moon at more than seven times the speed of sound.
Scientists Were Watching Closely
Scientists had predicted the impact and were keeping a close eye on the crash.
While nobody was able to watch the collision happen in real time, a telescope in Chile detected a cloud of debris believed to have been created when the rocket smashed into the Moon.
The impact is expected to have created a fresh crater and sent lunar dust and rocks flying high above the surface.
Could The Crash Actually Help Scientists?
Thankfully, there was never any danger to Earth, although the Moon may be wondering what it did to deserve being hit by a four-tonne rocket.
Researchers are now hoping the impact could help them learn more about what lies beneath the Moon’s surface.
The crash has also sparked fresh concerns about the growing amount of human-made junk being left behind in space, proving that even the Moon isn’t completely safe from our rubbish.
