On Wednesday (Aug. 5) at about 2:35 a.m. EDT (0635 GMT), the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will slam into the moon , blasting out a crater about 89 feet (27 meters) wide. Falcon 9 first stages are famously reusable , but the vehicle's upper stages fly just once. Signup to our newsletter Follow us on GoogleA SpaceX photo of one of the company's Falcon 9 upper stages, taken in 2022. The double crater created on the moon by the March 2022 crash of the upper stage of China's Long March 3C rocket. The third stage of NASA's Saturn V moon rocket struck the lunar surface on multiple Apollo missions, for example.