---
title: "A Derelict SpaceX Rocket Is About to Crash Into the Moon"
description: "An old SpaceX rocket is about to reach its final destination after a roughly six year journey — and crash on the Moon in spectacular fashion."
date: "2022-01-25"
modified: "2022-02-14"
authors:
  - name: "Tony Ho Tran"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/ttran.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-crash-moon"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Moon"
  - "Space"
  - "SpaceX"
tags:
  - "falcon 9"
  - "moon"
  - "SpaceX"
  - "the digest"
---

# A Derelict SpaceX Rocket Is About to Crash Into the Moon

![An old SpaceX rocket is about to reach its final destination after a roughly six year journey — and crash on the Moon in spectacular fashion.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/spacex-rocket-crash-moon.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/Futurism\</em\>*

## Crash Course

**Update:** *It was later found that while a derelict rocket was indeed headed for the Moon, it didn't belong to SpaceX — read our update here.*

Talk about a long, strange trip.

An old SpaceX rocket stage is about to reach its final destination after a roughly six year journey — by crashing into the Moon in spectacular fashion.

The second stage from one of the company's Falcon 9 spacecraft was used to send the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Deep Space Climate Observatory into space in February 2015, [*Ars Technica* reports](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/an-old-falcon-9-rocket-may-strike-the-moon-within-weeks/>). Instead of falling back to Earth, though, the rocket was stuck in a gravity limbo between us and the Moon.

Bill Gray, creator of near-Earth object tracker [Project Pluto](<https://www.projectpluto.com/>), along with a team of amateur and professional astronomers, recently discovered that the rocket would actually be [crashing on the far side of the Moon](<https://www.projectpluto.com/temp/dscovr.htm>) on March 4.

## New Crater

Interestingly, the crash is going to provide scientists with a rare opportunity to observe how craters are formed on the Moon.

Gray tells *Ars* that if researchers can determine the precise location of the impact, they’ll "be able to see a *very* fresh impact crater and probably learn something about the geology of that part of the Moon."

The rocket weighs roughly four metric tons and will be hitting the Moon at a rate of 1.6 miles per second. So it should create a nice-sized crater for observations.

While this will provide a good opportunity to learn more about the Moon, in other ways it's far from ideal. Rockets are generally designed to return to Earth to burn up on re-entry — not wander off to the Moon.

Of course, SpaceX has come a long way since then. Its first stage boosters [can actually land now](<https://futurism.com/spacex-just-made-history-with-the-first-launch-and-landing-of-a-previously-used-falcon-9-booster.md>), and the company is hard at work on landing second stages as well. Hopefully, no more errant rockets wind up crashing into the Moon, especially if we ever end up colonizing it.

*Updated to clarify that SpaceX cannot yet land second stage boosters after use.*

**READ MORE:** [After 7 years, a spent Falcon 9 rocket stage is on course to hit the Moon](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/an-old-falcon-9-rocket-may-strike-the-moon-within-weeks/>) \[*Ars Technica*\]

**More on Moon news:** [*The Moon’s Backside Is Surprisingly Sticky, China’s Rover Finds*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/moon-backside-sticky-rover.md>)

## Author
Tony Tran is a former reporter for Futurism, and now an editor at the Daily Beast. His work has been seen in Playboy, HuffPost, Narratively, and wherever else fine writing is published. He lives in Chicago where he frequently plans tabletop gaming sessions for his friends.

## More

- [SpaceX Could Get Sued When Its Derelict Rocket Crashes Into the Moon, Experts Say](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-sued-rocket-moon-crash.md>)
- [SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Crashes While Landing](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-rocket-crashes-landing.md>)
- [Video Appears to Show SpaceX Rocket Disintegrating in Epic Fireball](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/video-spacex-rocket-fireball.md>)
- [Stunning Video Shows SpaceX Rocket Launching In Front of Full Moon](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/video-spacex-rocket-full-moon.md>)
- [SpaceX Rocket Suffers Catastrophic Failure, Explodes While Deploying Satellites](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-rocket-explodes-satellites.md>)
- [China’s New Spaceship Is a Blatant Ripoff of SpaceX’s Starship](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-spaceship-starship.md>)
- [SpaceX Tourist Launch in Trouble After Rocket Crash Lands](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-tourist-launch-in-trouble.md>)
- [Man Wakes Up, Finds That Large Chunk of SpaceX Rocket Has Crashed Into His Garden](<https://futurism.com/chunk-spacex-rocket-crashed-garden.md>)