SpaceX rocket segment on course to hit the moon

A segment of a SpaceX rocket that launched seven years ago is currently on course to crash into the moon.

A segment of a SpaceX rocket that launched seven years ago is currently on course to crash into the moon.

The booster was part of the Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from SpaceX's Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in February 2015 as part of a mission to send a space-weather satellite more than 600,000 miles from Earth.

However, after a long burn to release the satellite at a specific position in space, the booster didn't have enough fuel to return to Earth's atmosphere, meteorologist Eric Berger explained in Ars Technica.

Additionally, its orbit was not high enough to escape the gravity pull between Earth and the moon, leaving the booster in a "chaotic orbit."