A huge, stray piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, travelling at about 8,700km/h, is expected to crash into the moon in August and leave a crater on the lunar surface.

The upper stage booster launched in January 2025, carrying lunar landers from Firefly Aerospace and Japanese company ispace, was supposed to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere after completing deployment of the landers, but instead drifted into a long orbit that crosses the moon’s path.

Independent astronomer Bill Gray calculates that the rocket stage will strike the moon at 7:44am Irish time on August 5, highlighting growing concerns about space junk as NASA and other agencies prepare for renewed lunar missions.