🚀 Falcon 9's final destination: the Moon

The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 from the January 2025 Blue Ghost mission has struck the Moon, just as astronomer Bill Grey predicted in April. The rocket burned nearly all its fuel delivering two lunar landers to orbit, leaving nothing for a controlled disposal.

The impact hit the sunlit side, so direct observation wasn't possible. The VLT in Chile caught the confirmation: a sodium-lithium plume tens of kilometres wide, lasting up to ten minutes. NASA estimates the crater at roughly 18 metres across.

The precedent matters more than the crater. Lunar traffic is growing, disposal standards for high-energy trajectories don't exist, and NASA has already called a lunar impact a "technically accepted method" — per The Guardian.

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