A errant SpaceX rocket booster is going to smash into the moon

On August 5, 2026, a SpaceX rocket booster is going to smash into the moon at 5400 miles an hour. Bill Gray, an astronomer who notes that although astronomy is his profession, he is reluctant to call himself a professional astronomer as he lacks a PhD, used his own software to pinpoint the time and location of the impact. The object, dubbed 2025-010D, is a SpaceX rocket booster that failed to burn up in the atmosphere after launching its payload and instead entered Earth orbit.

According to Scientific American:

Gray first noticed the collision course last September, but he says that while calculating the effects of gravity from Earth, the sun and the moon was straightforward, there was another variable that made things more complicated. The rocket booster was being hit by solar radiation pressure, which is caused by the photons blasted out of the sun. As those photons hit an object, they apply force. The amount is tiny, but it builds up over time.

Gray also correctly predicted the 2022 crash of China's Chang'e 5-T1 booster on the lunar surface. However, the object was initially misidentified, partly due to confusion on the part of China's Foreign Ministry. The crash of 2025-010D will most likely not be visible from Earth, despite its location on the near side of the Moon and in sunlight. The crash of Chang'e was not visible as it occurred on the far side of the Moon. But a deliberate collision of a rocket stage was carefully observed in 2010 under ideal conditions, though no impact debris was detected. Photographs from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will likely confirm the collision, as was the case with Chang'e.

Previously:
• Humans have left 400,000 pounds of 'garbage' on the moon
• Dark side of the moon, as seen from Artemis
• A surprise meteorite hit the moon during Monday's total lunar eclipse