A piece of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 crashes into the Moon

A piece of a Falcon 9 rocket Of SpaceXweighing about four tons and the size of a school bus, is destined to crash into the Moon at a speed of about 8,690 kilometers per hour. The impact poses no danger to Earth, but is expected to leave a new crater on the lunar surface and provide NASA with an opportunity to study it.

The object is the second stage of a Falcon 9 used in January 2025 to launch a Firefly Aerospace lander towards the Moon. The fragment should hit the lunar surface around 6:35 GMT on Wednesday 5 August, 8:35 am in Italy, in the area of ​​the Einstein crater, on the western edge of the Moon.

A crater on the Moon 18 meters wide

According to NASA, the impact is expected to create a crater about 18 meters wide and four deep and raise a cloud of dust and rock fragments. The cloud may be illuminated by the Sun, although it should be difficult to observe with the naked eye from Earth.

The US space agency will try to photograph the site before and after the impact. The data collected could help scientists better understand the effects of artificial impacts on the lunar surface and refine the techniques used to track objects in space.

“The impact poses no danger to Earth, and NASA scientists plan to collect lunar data from the event and refine techniques for tracking objects in space,” explained NASA’s Jimi Russell.

Heads up, a #rocket will hit the #moon tonight!

The upper stage of a #SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is going to hit the moon at 1:35 a.m. CDT (6:35 UTC). Who can see the strike? Find out more here: https://t.co/p329FJa9pE

Image via Bill Gray. Used with permission. pic.twitter.com/DR64ZcL1uJ

— EarthSky (@earthskyscience) August 4, 2026

Why SpaceX’s rocket remained in space

Rocket stages normally reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up or are directed to safe areas of the ocean after completing their mission. In this case, however, the launch to the Moon required a higher thrust than the Earth orbit missions the second stage remained in space.

The Falcon 9 piece had dumped residual fuel and could no longer be controlled. Only earlier this year did astronomers determine that its trajectory would lead to a collision with the Moon. “What happened was essentially the result of a combination of solar activity and gravitational forces that put it on a trajectory towards the Moon,” explained Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX director of NASA and Dragon science programs.

The problem of space debris

The collision presents no risks, but brings attention to the management of debris produced by space missions. Bill Gray, author of widely used astronomical software and among the first to report the fragment’s trajectory, noted that the event may be of limited scientific interest but also highlights the problem of disposing of hardware left in space after missions.

Space debris impacts on the Moon are rare, however. In March 2022, a Chinese rocket stage crashed onto the lunar surface after a test mission. In 2009, however, NASA intentionally crashed a rocket stage onto the Moon to analyze the cloud of material raised by the collision.

Several vehicles designed for soft moon landings have also ended up crashing into the surface in recent years, including the Russian Luna-25 mission in 2023, the Indian Chandrayaan-2 lander in 2019, and the Israeli Beresheet lander in the same year. NASA and SpaceX are discussing possible solutions to reduce the risk of similar events recurring on future lunar missions.