Musk's Falcon 9 rocket will land on the Moon in August

A massive piece of a SpaceX rocket, approximately 14 meters tall, will end its uncontrolled flight by crashing into the lunar surface at a speed of 8,700 kilometers per hour. The object remained in orbit after its launch in early 2025, when it carried the Blue Ghost lander and the Japanese spacecraft Hakuto-R into space. 

This is reported by Live Science, citing calculations by astronomer Bill Gray, the developer of Project Pluto.

The collision is predicted to occur on the boundary between the visible and far sides of the Moon near the Einstein crater. Despite the influence of solar radiation, which may slightly alter the trajectory, experts consider the location and time of impact to be quite accurate thanks to over a thousand recorded observations of the object. The impact force, which will exceed the speed of sound by a factor of seven, is likely to create a new crater on the surface of Earth’s satellite.

This incident once again highlights the problem of space debris, which has been accumulating around the Earth-Moon system for years. Astronomers note that such crashes of spent rocket stages are becoming more frequent due to the increased activity of lunar missions. Although the object does not pose a direct threat to current operations on the Moon, such incidents underscore the need for stricter control over flight trajectories after the completion of the main mission objectives.

On Wednesday, April 1, 2026, NASA successfully launched the Artemis II mission, which became the first crewed flight around the Moon in over half a century.

As a reminder, the Artemis II crew experienced a communication failure during their flight to the Moon.