SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket wreckage expected to hit the moon on Wednesday at over 5,000 mph

Part of the remains of a Falcon 9 rocket from the American space exploration company SpaceX is expected to hit the moon on Wednesday (5th) at a speed of more than 5,000 miles per hour. The impact force is equivalent to 3 tons of TNT and will leave craters on the lunar surface.

According to comprehensive foreign media reports, this piece of debris is the upper section of the Falcon 9 rocket. It is about 12 meters long, weighs about 4,500 kilograms, and is the size of a five-story building. The rocket carried two lunar landers and scientific instruments into space in January 2025. After completing its mission, the upper stage of the rocket continued to float in space, and SpaceX was unable to prevent it from crashing into the moon.

Bill Gray, an independent astronomer and space object tracking software developer, estimated that the rocket debris will hit the northwest side of the moon near Einstein Crater at 2:34 a.m. Eastern Time on the 5th (2:34 p.m. on the 5th, Taiwan time) at a speed of more than 5,000 miles per hour (approximately 8,047 kilometers per hour).

Scientists estimate that the impact force of the rocket debris is equivalent to 3 tons of yellow explosives. The impact is expected to produce a brief flash and throw rocks and dust into space. The research team estimates that more than 1 million kilograms of debris may be thrown upward, and most of it will still fall back to the lunar surface, possibly leaving a crater about 27 meters in diameter and 5 meters deep.

This is not the first time that a man-made object has hit the moon. In the past, space vehicles from many countries have deliberately hit the moon for research or mission needs; in 2022, the remains of a Chinese rocket also accidentally hit the back of the moon. This is expected to be the second known incident of an abandoned rocket accidentally hitting the moon.