A rocket launched by Elon Musk’s private US company SpaceX is about to crash into the moon and explode, according to the BBC.
The Falcon 9 booster was launched in 2015, but after completing its mission, it did not have enough fuel to return to Earth, so it remained in space.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell told BBC News that this would be the first known uncontrolled impact of a rocket on the moon. He assured that the impact of the collision would be minimal.
The rocket was thrown into high orbit seven years ago after the successful launch of a meteorological satellite. Since then, the rocket has been pulled by various gravitational forces towards the Earth, the Moon or the Sun, and its path is rather chaotic, said Professor McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the US.
“Over the decades, there were probably 50 major places where we completely lost track. This could have happened many times without our knowledge. If a rocket hits the moon now, it will be the first confirmed case,” he said.
Research programmer Bill Gray, who uses software to track space objects near Earth, says the rocket is likely to reach the far side of the Moon on March 4.