A large space debris derived from a SpaceX Falcon 9 could crash on the moon on the first weekend of Marchlaunched in 2015. The European Space Agency has calculated – and released today – that an upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 will impact the lunar surface in early March, and “It will be the first time that a man-made element of debris has inadvertently reached our natural satellite.”
Esa reports that “reliable public estimates foresee the impact with the Moon on March 4 at 12:25:39 UTC at a point on the opposite side of the moon near the equator. Follow-up observations are expected to refine the accuracy of the predictions, but it is currently expected the upper stage of approximately 3 tons, 15 meters long and 3 meters wide will strike at a speed of approximately 2.58 kilometers per second“the lunar surface. The Moon is therefore destined to have a new crater soon. The European Space Agency notes that” the European Ariane 5, which recently positioned the James Webb Space Telescope in its observation point, flew on a trajectory mirrored to that of the Falcon 9 but the good news is that its upper stage has already escaped a comparable fate thanks to a specially developed and qualified maneuver “to avoid an impact.
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