Inevitable crash: SpaceX rocket collides with the Moon

Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket launched in 2015 and completed a mission to deliver a weather satellite into space. Part of the rocket turned out not to have enough fuel to return to Earth.

Famed astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of Harvard University says it will be the first uncontrolled rocket to collide with the Moon. According to him, the effects will be “minimal”. A crater will be created.

Since 2015, the part of the rocket, which consists of an empty four-ton metal tank and a jet engine, has been in a “chaotic” orbit in space, according to McDowell. It travels an orbit determined by the gravitational pull of the earth, sun and moon.

8000 km/h

According to the latest expert calculations, the projectile flies against the surface of the celestial body on March 4 at a speed of more than 8000 kilometers per hour.

“Over the past few decades, there may have been as many as 50 large rockets that we’ve lost after launching into space,” McDowell says, pointing out that there are millions of pieces of space junk. “There may have been rocket collisions with the moon before, but we just didn’t know. This will be the first time we know.”