SpaceX rocket set to crash into the moon at seven times the speed of sound — but the 5,400 mph impact is entirely expected, and might even prove useful for NASA
- A spent Falcon 9 upper-stage rocket will hit the Moon near the Einstein Crater on 5 August at 5,400 mph, releasing roughly the energy equivalent of three tons of TNT
- The impact, though unintentional, was predicted since September 2025, giving NASA's LRO and South Korea's Danuri time to plan before-and-after imaging of the new crater
- Its scientific value is a rehearsal rather than a measurement: no seismometers have operated on the moon since 1977, so the event mainly tests impact-localization methods for future experiments
At roughly 06:35 UTC on August 5 2026, a spent Falcon 9 upper stage will stop being space junk and start being a crater.
The object, cataloged as 2025-010D, is projected to strike the lunar surface near the crater Einstein at 2.43 kilometers per second, which converts to about 8,700 kph or 5,400 mph.
While this was not intentionally aimed at the moon, almost a year...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to techradar.com. To see the full text click HERE
