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Daily Record
Daily Record
Lifestyle
Mya Bollan

SpaceX rocket spiralling out of control and on collision course with the moon

Remnant of a SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with our moon, according to experts.

Launched nearly seven years ago - back in February 2015 - the Falcon 9 was launched in an attempt to send a space weather satellite around a million miles from our planet.

The booster reached its destination of NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory successfully but is unable to return to Earth after running out of fuel.

This means that the rocket was left tumbling around space between the Earth and our moon.

Experts now estimate that the old Falcon 9 will collide with the the moon in just weeks, stating that it is likely to crash to the surface at a speed of 2.58km/s on March 4, 2022.

Writing in a blog post, data analyst Bill Gray, who operates software tracking near-Earth object, explained: "This is the first unintentional case [of space junk hitting the moon] of which I am aware."

SpaceX rocket, Falcon X, was launched back in February 2015. (Getty)

However, the collision is set to occur on the far side of the moon which means astronomers will not get the chance to see it happen.

"Unfortunately, observations will be basically impossible until sometime around 7 February, while the object is at low elongations," Gray wrote in the blog post on Project Pluto.

"We’ll then get a brief observing window of a day or two, during which it will be bright, close, and moving fast.

"Observations then should enable us to refine the impact point to within a kilometer or so, possibly better… which is good, because from 10 February to 4 March, it will again be at low elongations and we aren’t going to see anything."

The collision is set to be the first of its kind. (Getty)

Space experts think that this collision could actually be advantageous to space and moon research.

The impact will give experts an opportunity to learn more about the moon's geology.

It could also result in an ejection of subsurface material - which has never been seen before.

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