SpaceX rocket crashed on the moon, scientists say: ‘100% confidence’

Scientists say parts of a drifting SpaceX rocket crashed on the moon Wednesday morning, marking the conclusion of a more than year-long collision course for Falcon 9 lunar landers that were discarded into orbit last January. However, visual confirmation of the crash won’t be possible until likely next week when NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is set to fly over the crash scene and send back photos of the impact crater.Scientists who spoke to Global News and The Associated Press, though, say they are confident the crash happened as NASA had been expecting.“We can say with 100% confidence that the impact occurred at roughly the predicted time and place,” said Carl Schmidt, a research scientist at the Boston University Center for Space Physics.Schmidt said his team “measured a response from the rocket stage impact as a sodium and lithium gas plume a few 10’s of km in size lasting between 5 and 10 min after impact.” Story continues below advertisement Retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told The Associated Press that observations of the dead four-tonne upper stage on Tuesday night showed it heading straight for the moon.The anticipated crash site was a dusty, barren patch near...