The upper stage of a SpaceX rocket is expected to crash into the moon early Wednesday morning, creating a fresh crater and giving scientists a rare opportunity to observe the impact and its effects. The Falcon 9 upper stage that launched Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 and ispace’s Resilience lunar lander on Jan. 15, 2025. After deploying both spacecraft toward the moon, the stage remained in a highly elliptical Earth orbit. The upper stage then ignites, accelerating satellites into orbit or onward toward destinations such as the moon or Mars. Past impactsDozens of spacecraft, rocket stages and mission hardware have intentionally or unintentionally impacted the lunar surface.