Diary

The second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket is set to crash into the Moon in less than an hour. This event stems from an anomaly that occurred back on January 15, 2025. After deploying two spacecraft—the American *Blue Ghost* and the Japanese *Resilience*—the stage lacked sufficient fuel to return to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere as intended; instead, it followed the satellites it had launched toward the Moon. Both were lunar missions. *Blue Ghost* landed on the Moon on March 2, 2025, in the Mare Crisium (Sea of ​​Crises) region, while the Japanese *Resilience* crashed into the lunar surface on June 5, 2025 (a failed mission).

Now, the same fate awaits the rocket stage itself, which has finally reached its destination after nearly 19 months.

Calculations indicate the stage’s journey will end around 06:35 UTC near the Einstein crater. This impact crater, spanning approximately 200 kilometers (roughly the size of the Moscow or Leningrad regions), is located on the westernmost edge—or limb—of the Moon's near side. Since the impact site is brightly illuminated by the Sun, the flash from the crash will not be visible, though a faint dust cloud might be detected. In terms of mass, the rocket is comparable to a stony meteorite about one meter in size. Such rocks fall to Earth on average once every week or two, but they usually disintegrate almost entirely in the atmosphere.

If the impact is successfully recorded—even just as a hazy cloud of dust—images could appear as early as today. While it is best not to get one's hopes up too high, the rocket's fate is certainly fascinating: a human-made object chose a completely different destiny for itself, albeit one that still ends in a crash.