An amateur astronomer and space junk expert has calculated that an expended rocket stage from a 2015 launch by Space X will impact on the surface of the moon sometime around March 4th, the Washington Post reports.
The section of the Falcon rocket that will strike the moon’s surface has been on an irregular orbit around the moon since it was part of an early Space X mission to launch a satellite into orbit.
Bill Gray, a self-described orbital dynamics researcher from Maine, had a computer program forecasting the trajectory of various items of space junk, including this rocket section. His program kept terminating unexpectedly on March 4th predictions. Gray soon realized it was because the program couldn’t process the impact of the object into the moon.