Part of a SpaceX rocket used to launch a pair of robotic commercial lunar landers is expected to crash into the moon early Wednesday morning.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on January 15, 2025, carrying the Blue Ghost lander developed by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, as well as Tokyo-based Ispace's Resilience lander. Blue Ghost successfully soft-landed on the moon in March 2025, while Resilience failed to land safely a few months later.
While the rocket's first stage — the booster used for liftoff — returned to Earth, Falcon 9's second, or upper, stage served as the in-space workhorse to propel the landers on their path to the moon.
For missions heading to low-Earth orbit, the nearby region where the International Space Station circles our planet, SpaceX and other operators usually dispose of the upper stage by allowing it to burn up Earth's atmosphere, said Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA Science and Dragon Programs at SpaceX, at a Monday news conference.
"But for high energy missions, we need to perform a different maneuver to ensure the second stage itself is safe per the appropriate rules and regulations," Scheiman said. "We did that here for the Ispace and Blue Ghost missions' second stage, and what has happened is essentially a mixture of solar activity and gravity forces have put it on a path towards the moon."
Independent astronomers used publicly available data to track the Falcon 9 upper stage and determine that it was on a collision course with the moon, according to NASA. The agency's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks the orbits of space rocks that could crash into Earth, and very occasionally the moon, also confirmed the impact trajectory of the upper stage.
"There is no danger to Earth," according to a statement shared by the agency with CNN. "NASA will continue to track the booster for training purposes, as well as later observe the impact site for scientific purposes."
Astronomers across the Americas, who have the best chance of witnessing the impact expected to occur at 2:35 a.m. ET Wednesday, have aimed ground and space-based telescopes at the moon in hopes of witnessing the event. While there won't be a way for the general public to watch the impact live, imagery will likely become available afterward.
Scientists can use this rare occurrence of an artificial object hitting the moon to learn more about Earth's natural satellite — as well as prepare for how to shield astronauts and any future infrastructure sent there.
NASA is planning to create a more sustained human presence on the lunar surface through the Artemis program. But as more missions head for the moon, which does not have a protective atmosphere like Earth's, managing the accumulation of space debris in lunar orbit will increasingly become an issue.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is seen arcing over the sky after liftoff in 2025. – Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Image
The rocket's upper stage, estimated to be around 8,818 pounds (4,000 kilograms), is expected to hit the lunar surface near Einstein Crater, according to a preprint study authored by a group of scientists, including researchers at NASA.
The study, currently awaiting review, has been submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The authors wanted to share their predictions for the impact ahead of time to enable astronomers to prepare for observing the event, said study coauthor Darryl Seligman, assistant professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University.
But the impact won't be visible with the naked eye and may be tough to spot through telescopes as well.
The impact flash, the moment when the rocket strikes the moon moving at an estimated 5,436 miles per hour (2.43 kilometers per second), will only last about a second at most.