A 9,000 pound SpaceX rocket will crash into the Moon tonight

[LazyHippo]

A SpaceX rocket piece floating in space since last year is on track to smash into the Moon at high speed early Wednesday morning.

 

The school-bus-size object is the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had launched a lunar lander from Firefly Aerospace toward the Moon in January 2025.

 

Weighing four metric tons (4,000kg), the rocket body is due to hit the moon around 2:35am ET (0635 GMT).

 

Hitting its surface at 5,400 miles per hour (8,690kph).

 

The space junk will kick up a plume of lunar dust that will likely be illuminated by sunlight but difficult to spot with the naked eye from Earth.

 

Any flash from the impact itself is expected to be washed out by the bright lunar surface.

 

However, material blasted above the lunar horizon could briefly become visible against the darkness of space.

 

Amateur astronomers may be able to capture with sufficiently large telescopes and cameras.

 

Recent simulations suggest the central ejecta plume could climb as high as 60 miles (100 kilometers).