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This hasn\u2019t been the greatest week for Elon Musk. First his SpaceX stock took a hit as its post-IPO lockup expired. Now one of his rockets likely crashed into the moon.<\/p>\n
Early Wednesday morning, the discarded upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was due to slam into the moon at 5,400 miles per hour, more than twice the speed of a bullet, according to the New York Times<\/a>. The scheduled time has now passed. So far, nobody has confirmed it actually happened.<\/p>\n Astronomer Bill Gray, who first predicted the collision, called the odds of spotting a visible flash or debris plume \u201cquite iffy\u201d beforehand. Reporter Kenneth Chang, who covered the story for the Times, said afterward there\u2019d been no immediate reports of a flash, but noted that was expected anyway. Confirming the crash requires comparing before-and-after satellite photos of the impact site, which takes time. A Korean spacecraft, Danuri, is expected to pass over the site about eight hours after impact. NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter won\u2019t get there for six days.<\/p>\n But the physics leave little real doubt that the crash happened. As Chang says, nothing short of aliens shooting the rocket out of the sky could have knocked it off course.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n This hasn\u2019t been the greatest week for Elon Musk. First his SpaceX stock took a hit as its post-IPO lockup expired. Now one of his rockets likely crashed into the moon.<\/p>\n Early Wednesday morning, the discarded upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was due to slam into the moon at 5,400 miles per hour, more than twice the speed of a bullet, according to the New York Times<\/a>. The scheduled time has now passed. So far, nobody has confirmed it actually happened.<\/p>\n Astronomer Bill Gray, who first predicted the collision, called the odds of spotting a visible flash or debris plume \u201cquite iffy\u201d beforehand. Reporter Kenneth Chang, who covered the story for the Times, said afterward there\u2019d been no immediate reports of a flash, but noted that was expected anyway. Confirming the crash requires comparing before-and-after satellite photos of the impact site, which takes time. A Korean spacecraft, Danuri, is expected to pass over the site about eight hours after impact. NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter won\u2019t get there for six days.<\/p>\n But the physics leave little real doubt that the crash happened. As Chang says, nothing short of aliens shooting the rocket out of the sky could have knocked it off course.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n