WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A heavy part of a drifting SpaceX rocket, about the size of a five-floor building, is expected to crash into the moon in the early hours of Wednesday.
The used upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, weighing around four tons and traveling at about 5,400 miles per hour, has been floating in space since last year.
NASA spokesperson Jimi Russel said the collision between the Moon and the rocket poses no danger to Earth.
She said NASA and SpaceX are tracking the approaching object using ground-based telescopes and space-based assets. Scientists are planning to collect lunar data from the event and refine techniques for tracking objects in space.
Under a commercial mission, SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket on January 15, 2025, carrying two robotic commercial landers, and successfully deployed Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander to the Moon. Solar activity and gravitational forces caused the stage's unplanned return to the Moon.
NASA and SpaceX remain in communication about the upper stage and its flight path.
Astronomers first identified the trajectory using publicly available data. NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which tracks natural objects that could pose hazards to Earth, later confirmed the stage has a 100 percent chance of impacting the Moon.
NASA said it will continue tracking it as part of training operations.
Because the Moon has no atmosphere to slow incoming objects, it is struck by meteoroids daily. Human-made object impacts are far less common but do occur. The rocket stage is expected to create a crater about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep and throw dust and rock outward as ejecta. For comparison, a meteoroid with the same energy as the upper stage hits the Moon about every six days, so the lunar surface is constantly absorbing impacts with the same force.
Despite the disturbance, observing impacts gives scientists valuable insight by revealing how ejecta plumes behave, helping to understand the Moon's geology and refine models that guide future exploration and science missions.
The impact will not be visible to the naked eye on Earth, but NASA will attempt to observe it in real time. The Meteoroid Environments Office at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville will use ground-based telescopes to image the impact; however, weather and lighting conditions may make viewing difficult.
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