&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Rogue rocket zooming around Earth set to crash into Moon at Mach 7. Know exact date and time")
A SpaceX rocket is set to crash into the Moon in August this year. According to Bill Gray, an independent orbital analyst and creator of the Project Pluto object-tracking software, this rocket is currently orbiting Earth at almost the same distance as the Moon. Their orbits nearly intersect, but soon they will meet each other. This Falcon 9 rocket took two landers to the lunar body in January 2025 - Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience lander. The rocket’s upper stage was supposed to return to Earth after finishing its job. However, it got stuck in a highly elliptical orbit and never made it back. Astronomers have been watching this object since then, and in 1,053 observations, they noted that while it crossed paths with Earth and Moon several times, it never came close to a collision. But now, it is happening.
When will the rocket crash into the Moon?
Gray used his software to analyse the orbit of this upper-stage rocket and predict its future path. According to him, it will crash into the Moon at 2:44 am ET (1:14 pm) on August 5, moving at a speed of 8,700 kilometres per hour, or seven times the speed of sound. He clarified in a post on his Project Pluto website that the rocket does not pose any threat to anyone. However, it provides an insight into "certain carelessness about how leftover space hardware (space junk) is disposed of." Gray said that right now he doesn't know the exact point where it will strike, but this will become clear by the start of August.
Also Read: No Mars, no moolah: Musk's appraisal directly tied to settling 1 million people on Red Planet
Will the collision be visible from Earth?
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The rocker is revolving around Earth, completing one circle in 26 days. At its closest point, it remains 220,000 km from Earth, and around 510,000 km away at its farthest point, which means it is inside the cislunar space. Gray said that the orbit of the Moon and this object intersect. “Usually, one goes through the intersection point while the other is somewhere else. But on August 5, they’ll reach that point at the same time.” Based on his calculations, the collision will happen on the near side, but the trajectory could also shift and take it to the far side. The impact would not be visible from Earth.
The Falcon 9 rocket took off for the Moon on January 15, 2025, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Both Blue Ghost and Resilience reached the Moon. However, while Resilience crashed, Blue Ghost successfully touched down. The mission operated for two weeks before it ran out of power following the lunar sunset. It also took a picture of the sun setting from the lunar horizon.
