It sounds worse than it is: An old SpaceX rocket stage is about to crash into the moon

A Falcon 9 rocket stage launched in 2015 is currently on course to crash into the moon

By Reid McCarter  |  January 26, 2022 | 9:00pm
Aux Features SpaceX
It sounds worse than it is: An old SpaceX rocket stage is about to crash into the moon
This whole thing was predicted by Georges Méliès back in 1902. Screenshot: Billi Brass Quintet

We need to leave the moon alone. After already having heard about plans for our horrible little species to install a nuclear plant on its surface, shoot a bunch of sperm onto it, and steal its precious reserves of astronaut scat, we’ve now learned that one of our stupid space rocket bits is about to crash into its surface.

Ars Technica reports that all of this is the fault of SpaceX and its Falcon 9, a rocket launched by the company in February, 2015. The rocket’s second stage ended up “high enough that it did not have enough fuel to return to Earth’s atmosphere” after it reached orbit seven years ago and has been floating around in “the gravity of the Earth-Moon system” ever since.

Observers have now learned that the Falcon 9's roughly 4 ton second stage will soon end up in the moon’s orbit and “will very likely impact [its] far side” on March 4th “at a velocity of about 2.58 km/s.”

While this may sound terrible, scientists are apparently pretty pumped to watch what happens when the rocket piece crashes down. Because this is “likely … the first time a piece of space hardware unintentionally strikes the moon,” sicko researchers who love seeing our dear moon get beat up are eager to gather data about the ensuing impact crater. Presumably, they’re not worried about massive tidal waves swallowing our cities as a result of the crash or they would, um, hopefully mention that before anything else.

Still, whether this is all safe or not, what scientists aren’t considering is that the Falcon 9 stage may also destroy cool rocks in the process of hitting the moon, which will deprive us of future opportunities to enjoy a few weeks of wondering if maybe, just maybe there actually are crumby little alien houses up there after all.

[via Futurism]

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