SpaceX rocket ‘slams into the moon’ after drifting through space since last year

A SpaceX rocket piece floating in space since last ‌year was expected to have smashed into the moon at high speed early Wednesday morning, though the impact was unlikely to be confirmed for at least several hours. The school-bus-size object is the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had launched a lunar lander from Firefly Aerospace toward the moon in January 2025. Weighing 4 metric tons (4,000 kg), the rocket body had been due to ​hit the moon around 2:35 a.m. ET, traveling at 5,400 miles per hour, but none of the spacecraft orbiting the moon were expected to be ​in a position to capture images of the impact live. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 15, 2025. REUTERS The space junk would have kicked up a plume of lunar dust ⁠that would