Astronomers say the higher stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that launched in early 2025 will strike the Moon later this summer time, seemingly on the close to facet of the Moon.
Invoice Grey, who writes the extensively used Undertaking Pluto software program to trace near-Earth objects, has revealed a complete report on the affect anticipated to happen at 2:44 am ET (06:44 UTC) on August 5. The Falcon 9 rocket’s higher stage is 13.8 meters (45 ft) tall and has a 3.7-meter (12 ft) diameter. Because the Moon has no environment, it can strike the lunar floor intact.
Though the Moon shall be seen to the japanese half of the US and Canada, and in a lot of South America, Grey mentioned he believes the affect will in all probability be too faint to be seen by Earth-based telescopes.
Extremely assured in its origin
Grey mentioned he and different astronomers are extremely assured that this object is the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that launched two lunar landers, Firefly’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Hakuto-R, on January 15, 2025. After the launch, the 2 landers, a payload fairing, and the higher stage have been all tracked following their separation. The 2 landers reached the Moon (solely Blue Ghost efficiently touched down), and the fairing reentered Earth’s environment.
“The higher stage, 2025-010D, additionally stored orbiting the Earth, however was a bit greater and didn’t re-enter,” Grey wrote. “It’s had a couple of shut passes by the Moon and Earth, however nothing that was shut sufficient to appear to be a attainable affect. The asteroid surveys noticed it every time it wasn’t too near the Solar or Moon to see. As of 2026 February 26, we had gathered 1053 observations of it.”
