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A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage hit the moon late on Tuesday, creating a fresh impact crater and adding to the growing amount of human-made debris scattered across the lunar surface. Image shows a he Mars Australe lava plain on the Moon taken by Japan\u2019s Kaguya lunar orbiter in November 2007.<\/p>\n
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A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage<\/a> hit the moon early on Wednesday, creating a fresh impact crater and adding to the growing amount of human-made debris scattered across the lunar surface. The 45-foot (13.8-meter) upper stage struck the moon at around 5,400 mph (8,700 km\/h) after spending almost seven months drifting through space.<\/p>\n The SpaceX rocket crashed at 5,400 miles (8,700 kilometers) per hour, at approximately 2:35 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. Although the impact occurred near Einstein Crater on the moon\u2019s far side in daylight and was not visible from Earth \u2014 and posed no danger \u2014 it highlights growing concerns about space junk beyond Earth as lunar exploration gathers pace.<\/p>\n The SpaceX rocket crash comes as NASA, China and commercial companies prepare for a new era of lunar exploration \u2014 with NASA\u2019s moonbase now being planned<\/a> \u2014 raising fresh questions about how spacecraft should be disposed of once their missions end.<\/p>\n ForbesSpaceX Space Junk Could Crash Into The Moon In August, Scientist SaysBy Jamie Carter<\/a>SpaceX Rocket Crash: An Unplanned Journey<\/p>\n The Falcon 9 upper stage launched on Jan. 15, 2025, carrying Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1<\/a> and ispace\u2019s Resilience lunar lander. Blue Ghost successfully landed on the moon on March 2, 2025, while Resilience crashed on June 4, 2025. After completing its mission, the rocket stage remained in space rather than returning to Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n Astronomers tracked its increasingly unstable orbit before confirming in May<\/a> that it would collide with the moon. Naming it 2025-010D, researchers estimated the impact would excavate millions of pounds of lunar soil and leave a crater about 89 feet (27 meters) wide.<\/p>\n Although any impact flash was expected to be hidden by the bright sunlit surface, scientists hoped a cloud of ejected dust would briefly rise above the lunar horizon, offering a rare opportunity to study the aftermath of an artificial impact. Scientists are expected to release data on the event in the days and weeks to come.<\/p>\n In 2009, NASA\u2019s LCROSS mission deployed the upper stage of a Centaur rocket to intentionally impact the Moon before crashing into the lunar surface itself. The resulting debris plumes were observed from Earth and revealed water ice.<\/p>\n ForbesNASA\u2019s New Moon Base Plan Explains Why It\u2019s Going Back To The MoonBy Jamie Carter<\/a>SpaceX Rocket Crash: Moon\u2019s Space Junk Problem Grows<\/p>\n The impact also highlighted growing concerns about space junk beyond Earth as the moon becomes an increasingly crowded destination. About 35,000 objects are now tracked by space surveillance networks, according to the European Space Agency<\/a>, while the BBC reports<\/a> there are now around 3,000 human-made objects on the moon weighing a combined 209 tons. These include spent rocket stages, spacecraft, scientific instruments and mission debris left behind since the Soviet Union\u2019s Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in 1959. That includes debris from the NASA\u2019s Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 missions that landed on the moon.<\/p>\n