An out-of-control piece of rocket space junk is crashing into the moon: Here's what to know

Seldom Bucket · Mar 4, 2022

A rocket stage will slam into the moon on Friday (March 4), amid a dispute about which country launched it and discussions on the complexity of tracing human-made objects in deep space.

What's known for sure is that the rocket stage will impact the far side of the moon, out of range of ground telescopes and likely also away from the immediate view of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The unintentional crash will occur at 7:25 a.m. EST (1225 GMT) on Friday, experts say.

LRO will seek out the crater after the event, a missions spokesperson told Space.com last month; Scientific American suggests the impact will occur somewhat near the 354-mile-wide (570 kilometers) Hertzsprung Crater.

The rocket body's road to the moon has been a tricky story to trace, however. Sources have variously pointed to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, a Chinese rocket or perhaps some other vehicle.