A stray SpaceX rocket stage could slam into the moon this August, amateur astronomer says

Earth's moon is to be on the receiving end of a spent rocket stage in early August - the leftovers from a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch last year. Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, launched on Jan. 15, 2025 and performed the first fully successful commercial lunar landing on March 2 at the moon's Mare Crisium. That lander went on to mark the longest commercial operation on the moon to date. Meanwhile, the Falcon 9's leftover upper stage, labeled 2025-010D that lobbed the two private spacecraft into space is now headed for a run in with the moon . "We've been tracking it since launch. The orbit has changed a bit over the last year or so, and is now headed for a lunar impact," said Bill Gray of Project Pluto. Gray is the creator of Guide, an astronomy and telescope-tracking application used worldwide by professional and amateur astronomers alike to keep tabs on asteroids, comets, and other near-Earth objects. Project Pluto provides software tools useful for astronomers to identify satellites in their data, and has published a page of data about the Falcon 9 upper stage. "We now have another upper stage due to hit the moon, this one on Aug. 5 and (just barely) on the near side of the moon," Gray said. Also riding onboard that SpaceX rocket was Japan's HAKUTO-R M2 lunar lander, called Resilience. However, that probe was lost roughly 90 seconds before touchdown, plowing into the stark lunar terrain due to a laser rangefinder malfunction. …