Defunct part of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will slam into the moon

Space Defunct part of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will slam into the moon August 2, 20267:38 PM ET By  Chandelis Duster A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A with a payload of a pair of lunar landers at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. John Raoux/AP hide caption toggle caption John Raoux/AP A piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to slam into the moon on Wednesday, according to scientists. The piece is expected to hit the moon around 2:35 a.m. ET at more than 5,000 miles per hour, according to analysis by Bill Gray, who develops software that tracks objects in space. It is part of the rocket's upper portion and about the size of a five-story building. It was part of the Falcon 9 rocket that carried two lunar landers and scientific instruments to the moon in January 2025. Sponsor Message Short Wave Want to spend a year living in NASA's Mars simulation? The piece is expected to hit a sunlit side of the moon facing Earth, which will be partially illuminated, in the northwestern portion near the Einstein Crater, according to Gray. The impact could leave a crater at least 17 meters in diameter, he said. SpaceX did not intend for the defunct piece to hit the moon, according to the Associated Press. NPR reached out to SpaceX for comment but has not received a response. Brent Garry, a project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said the orbiter will pass over the region before and after the impact to get a sense of any changes to the surface. "After the impact we might have a little bit more knowledge of where it is. We can do some additional targeting about a week after the impact and get some targeting over where the site is," Garry said in June during a discussion about the upcoming impact held by NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). The impact may not be visible; even a plume of dust may be difficult for professional telescop...