Doom on the Moon: SpaceX rocket loses control, will crash into Moon
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The Falcon 9 will be crashing into the Moon in March.
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An image of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Block 5 on its inaugural flight. (SpaceX)
After 7 years of hurtling through outer space, the SpaceX-made Falcon 9 Rocket will be colliding with the moon in March this year.
The rocket was launched in February, 2015, in Florida on a mission to send a weather satellite into space as it toured between planets.
However, its engines have become exhausted after sending the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Deep Space Climate Observatory to the Lagrange point. The point is situated in a gravity-neutral position four times further than the moon and in alignment with the Sun.
Eric Berger, a meteorologist, contended in a post on Ars Technica that the craft did not have enough fuel to return to Earth, and "lacked the energy to escape the gravity of the Earth-Moon system."
He said, “So it has been following a somewhat chaotic orbit since February 2015."
In a few weeks, according to space observers, the rocket will crash into the moon at a speed of 2.58 kilometers per second.
The rocket's upper stage is likely to hit the far side of the moon near its equator on March 4, said Bill Gray, a data analyst who also writes software for systems used to track objects, asteroids, planets and comets near Earth.
“This is the first unintentional case [of space junk hitting the moon] of which I am aware,” Gray revealed.
On his part, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist from Harvard University, said that the event isn't a big deal, despite that space enthusiasts believe that the crash could potentially provide valuable data.
For those asking: yes, an old Falcon 9 second stage left in high orbit in 2015 is going to hit the moon on March 4. It's interesting, but not a big deal.
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) January 25, 2022
