An Abandoned SpaceX Rocket Crashed Into the Moon. Here’s What Happened
In January last year, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with NASA and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander. The Blue Ghost went on to become the first commercially built lunar vehicle to land on the moon, and the reusable lower stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 landed back on Earth. But the discarded upper stage of the Falcon 9 spent 18 months drifting in space before slamming into the surface of the moon at approximately 2:35 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
NASA, astronomers and other space agencies knew this was coming and have spent weeks preparing to see the rocket’s violent descent to the moon’s surface. That included tasking the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea’s Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter with photographing the impact site before and after the crash to check out the moon’s newest crater.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage is the size of a five-story building and...
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