A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage is believed to have struck the Moon after more than a year drifting through deep space, marking one of the rare occasions where a human-made spacecraft has unintentionally impacted the lunar surface.
While astronomers are confident the rocket reached the Moon at the predicted time based on its tracked trajectory, scientists are still waiting for images from lunar orbiters to confirm the exact impact site and study the newly formed crater.
The 4,000-kilogram rocket stage was expected to hit the Moon at approximately 06:35 UTC on August 5, which corresponds to 12:20 p.m. Nepal time. The impact is estimated to have released energy equivalent to about 3 tons of TNT, throwing a cloud of lunar dust into space and creating a fresh crater on the Moon’s surface.
The Falcon 9 upper stage launched in January 2025 as part of a mission carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander and Japanese company ispace’s Resilience lunar lander toward the Moon. Unlike most Falcon 9 upper stages that safely re-enter Earth’s atmosphere after completing their mission, this stage remained in space because the mission required nearly all of its remaining fuel to send the payloads toward the Moon.
Over the past several months, astronomers tracked the empty rocket as gravitational forces from the Earth and Moon, along with solar radiation, gradually altered its orbit. With no fuel left for course corrections, the upper stage was placed on an unavoidable collision course with the lunar surface.
Although scientists hoped the impact might produce a faint flash visible through telescopes on Earth, no confirmed observations of the collision were reported. Instead, researchers are relying on spacecraft already orbiting the Moon, including NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea’s Danuri mission, to photograph the impact site during upcoming flyovers.
Scientists say the event presents a valuable opportunity to study how impacts shape the lunar surface under controlled conditions. Because the location and timing of the collision were predicted in advance, researchers expect the data to improve their understanding of crater formation, the behavior of lunar dust, and the potential hazards future astronauts and lunar infrastructure could face from natural and artificial impacts.
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SpaceX has said the collision was unintentional and poses no danger to Earth. The company, along with scientists, is now awaiting high-resolution orbital images that will provide definitive confirmation of the impact and reveal the size and characteristics of the newly formed crater.
