Part of a SpaceX rocket may collide with the moon in March

The stage trajectory of the “Falcon 9” rocket is currently being monitored, a NASA spokeswoman said Thursday, January 27, German news agency DPA.

The rocket was launched in 2015 from Cape Canaveral Spaceport and moved the Deep Space Climate Observatory, an Earth observation satellite, into space. After that, the rocket stage did not have enough fuel to return to Earth, which is why it has been in space since then.

“Exciting Research Opportunity”

NASA said that on its current trajectory, the rocket stage will hit the far side of the moon on March 4. Many American scientists had previously drawn attention to this. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s private space company, which does a lot of business with NASA, initially did not respond to any request.

NASA said the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will not notice the impact live. However, it is being investigated whether changes to the Moon and potential craters caused by the collision can then be analyzed. “This unique event represents an exciting research opportunity.” Finding the crater will be a huge challenge and may take weeks or even months.