Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A piece of a SpaceX rocket is about to hit the moon.
abcnew.com ^ | 7/30/2026 | Matthew Glasser

Posted on 07/30/2026 2:18:55 PM PDT by know.your.why

A discarded Falcon 9 rocket will collide with the moon at 5,400 miles per hour.

A roughly five-ton piece of a SpaceX rocket that sent two lunar landers to the moon is about to join them, but not on purpose.

On Aug. 5 at around 2:34 a.m. ET, the upper stage of a discarded Falcon 9 rocket will collide with the moon at 5,400 miles per hour near the crater Einstein on the western lunar limb, according to Bill Gray, who runs Project Pluto and develops software for tracking astronomical objects.

Gray was the first to calculate that the object would hit the moon and has been tracking it since. He also co-authored a study on the impact with an international team of researchers who recently made their work available on the open-access preprint arXiv server. The paper has not been peer-reviewed.

"We expect that to vaporize the booster, create a flash of light, probably a plume of ejecta -- dust, regolith, other stuff mixed into it -- and of course excavate a fresh crater on the lunar surface," Benjamin Fernando, a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the lead author of the study, told ABC News.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: lunar; spacejunk; spacex
Message from Jim Robinson:

Dear FRiends,

We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.

If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you,

Jim

Poor Blue Origin. They just can't seem to catch a break.

https://abcnews.com/US/piece-spacex-rocket-hit-moon/story?id=135225250
1 posted on 07/30/2026 2:18:55 PM PDT by know.your.why
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: know.your.why
What fun!

https://www.projectpluto.com/25010d.htm


2 posted on 07/30/2026 2:25:40 PM PDT by know.your.why
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: know.your.why

THAT Rocket “Science” stuff is not trivial.

Stand aside...


3 posted on 07/30/2026 3:02:19 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Paladin2

Now we ask — where on the planet can we watch it live ?
We are a day past the full moon.
Moon rise tonight is 945p Eastern Time.
I think the moon won’t have risen on August 5th to be visible in the USA that overnight at 235am
It’ll be close.
Europe should be able to see it.


4 posted on 07/30/2026 3:33:16 PM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT back in 2006)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: George from New England

AI says: For August 5, 2026, moonrise times in Florida vary slightly by location but generally occur between 10:25 PM and 11:25 PM local time.

I think its totally wrong.


5 posted on 07/30/2026 3:34:26 PM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT back in 2006)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: George from New England

We don’t have observational Satellites to provide closeup videos?

If not, we need to get some.

Things are heating up wrt “Whitey, on the Moon”....


6 posted on 07/30/2026 3:36:16 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: George from New England

AI “truth” is rapidly fading as it “learns” from its interactions with the [New] Real World.

It was fun while it lasted as a quasi actual Oracle.


7 posted on 07/30/2026 3:38:51 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: know.your.why
The Man In The Moon is going to be really PO'd...


8 posted on 07/30/2026 6:23:04 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson