Talk about a long trip.
An old rocket stage is about to reach its final destination after a six year journey, by crashing into the Moon.
The second stage of the company's Falcon 9 spaceship was used to send the Deep Space Climate Observatory into space. The rocket was stuck in a limbo between us and the Moon, instead of falling back to Earth.
Bill Gray, creator of near-Earth object tracker Project Pluto, along with a team of amateur and professional astronomer, recently discovered that the rocket would actually be crashing on the far side of the Moon on March 4.
The crash will allow scientists to observe how craters are formed on the Moon.
If researchers can determine the precise location of the impact, they will be able to see a very fresh impact crater and learn something about the geology of that part of the Moon.
The rocket will hit the Moon at a rate of 1.6 miles per second. It should create a large crater for observations.
This will provide a good opportunity to learn more about the moon, but it is far from ideal. It is generally designed to return to Earth to burn up on re-entry, not wander off to the Moon.
It has come a long way since then, and their boosters can actually land now. Hopefully, there won't be any rockets crashing on the Moon.
After 7 years, a spent Falcon 9 rocket stage is on its way to the moon.
The Moon's Backside is surprisingly sticky.
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