SpaceX rocket stage expected to strike moon after year in space

Nicosia, Cyprus. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage that had been floating in space since January 2025 was expected to strike the moon early Wednesday, though confirmation of the impact was expected to take several hours.

Expected impact

The school-bus-sized object was the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that launched a Firefly Aerospace lunar lander towards the moon in January 2025.

Weighing 4 metric tonnes, the rocket body was due to hit the moon at about 2.35am ET (0635 GMT) at a speed of 5,400mph. Spacecraft orbiting the moon were not expected to be positioned to capture live images of the impact.

The object was expected to strike Einstein Crater on the moon’s western limb, an area that is often difficult to observe from Earth.

Confirmation efforts

The collision was expected to create a plume of lunar dust illuminated by sunlight, although it would be difficult to see from Earth without telescopes.

Scientists were expected to examine telescope images from the Americas to confirm the crash, a process that could take several hours.

SpaceX said the impact was unintentional.

Orbital trajectory

Rocket stages normally return to Earth’s atmosphere after delivering their payload, where they burn up or fall into the ocean.

However, the lunar lander mission required additional thrust, leaving the second stage in space after it had expended its remaining fuel. The stage could not be controlled and remained among thousands of pieces of space debris.

Astronomers determined earlier this year that solar activity and gravitational forces had placed the rocket stage on a trajectory towards the moon.

“This may be of some — probably minor — scientific interest, and we may learn some things from it,” said Bill Gray, an astronomy software creator who published a report on the expected impact in April.