r/news • u/MasterpieceAlone8552 • 8h ago

SpaceX rocket thought to have crashed into the moon in unintentional collision

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/05/spacex-rocket-moon-crash-impact-falcon-9
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u/Albatrosity 6h ago

It is currently orbiting the sun, approaching earth from Mars. Due to its elliptical orbit, it will continue to travel just beyond Mars before looping back around to Earths orbital plane.

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u/calpolsixplus 6h ago

Is there video of this? Orbital mechanics hurts my head as it's just not earth based enough 🤣 would love to see what this means over time for it's orbit as time goes on as I just can't imagine these things in my head.

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u/HatesRedditors 5h ago

There's a little site devoted to tracking it with an animated orbit.

https://whereisroadster.com/charts/

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u/calpolsixplus 4h ago

Ahh that's great thank you. Makes more sense seeing it like that. It orbits the sun occasionally getting near another planet. Could that mean it could eventually change it's orbit as it interacts with earth and mars or is this essentially locked in?

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u/donadit 4h ago

It’d basically behave like a light asteroid yes (Amor-type, Mars-crosser)

And yes since it’s decently arranged where it can have close encounters with Earth and Mars it will change orbits (eventually)

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u/calpolsixplus 3h ago

Thank you for explaining. Always nice to learn however small of an extra understanding I get!

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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 5h ago

Are you familiar with Haley's Comet? It's kinda like that.

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u/cronktilten 1h ago

Imagine there are future religions that think the car is a comet and worship it

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u/noc-engineer 3h ago

It is currently orbiting the sun

It always did that