SpaceX Falcon 9 stage hits Moon near Einstein Crater

A piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, left adrift in space for over a year, is believed to have struck the moon as predicted on August 5, 2026, according to scientists tracking the object. The collision, which was not intentional, is expected to have created a new crater near Einstein Crater on the moon's sunlit western limb.

The rocket's upper stage, described as roughly the size of a school bus and weighing approximately 4,000 kilograms, was launched from Cape Canaveral on January 15, 2025. Its mission was to deploy two private lunar landers, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience, on course for the moon. After completing that task, the spent stage remained in a chaotic orbit. Scientists determined earlier this year that gravitational forces and solar activity had nudged it onto a collision trajectory.

While the impact itself was not directly observed, evidence quickly mounted to confirm it. The European Southern Observatory reported that its Very Large Telescope in Chile detected a plume of debris lasting five to ten minutes after the predicted impact time of approximately 0635 GMT. The telescope identified spectral signatures of sodium, likely from lunar soil,...