The Collision
An uncontrolled rocket stage from a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission has crashed into the Moon. This created a new crater and sent up a cloud of dust from the impact. The 4,000-kilogram object struck with an energy comparable to three tons of TNT. Scientists had predicted the event would be marked by a small flash. But amateur astronomers using telescopes failed to see it from Earth. The collision, forecast to occur around 7:35 a.m. in the UK or 2:35 a.m. in the US Eastern Time zone, was expected to hit Einstein Crater on the moon’s western limb, which is often difficult to see from Earth. The space junk would have kicked up a plume of lunar dust that would likely be illuminated by sunlight, but difficult to spot with the naked eye from Earth. It was likely to be at least several hours before scientists would be able to confirm the crash by studying images from telescopes in the Americas, the BBC reported. Rodrigo Palominos, a telescope operator at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, says earlier this morning there was an impact of the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. He tells Radio 4's Today programme that at the predicted time of impact, he detected a change in some emission lines - bright lines of light - which were not present before. Palominos says it's an 'encouraging preliminary result' which may indicate material released by the collision. As of 9 a.m. EDT Wednesday, observations have yet to confirm whether the collision occurred, although it was suggested that a faint flash of light might be visible in the suspected region using Earth-based telescopes. No obvious signs of the crash were reported by amateur astronomers. Additional imagery may have been obtained from any of the several ground-based observatories in the United States that were monitoring for signs of an impact, although analysis of any imagery collected this morning could take several days. Imagery obtained by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is expected to capture images of the newly formed crater in the days ahead.
First photos from South Korea's Danuri lunar orbiter reveal a small, blackened crater at the site where a used Falcon 9 upper stage crashed into the lunar surface around 2:35 a.m. ET. The photos were shared by the Korea AeroSpace Administration on social media on Thursday. The crash occurred near Einstein crater, on the northwestern limb of the moon, close to the terminator zone where lunar day and night meet. A preprint study shared earlier this week predicted that the crash would create a new crater on the moon measuring roughly 90 feet (27 meters) wide and up to 16 feet (5 m) deep — a dent too small to be seen from Earth, even with a good telescope. The pesky piece of space junk that hit the moon on Wednesday is the second (or upper) stage of one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets that launched into space on Jan 15, 2025. It was carrying a pair of lunar landers: the Blue Ghost lander developed by private company Firefly Aerospace, which successfully touched down on the moon in March 2025; and the Hakuto-R lander developed by Japanese company ispace, which lost contact with Earth and crash-landed on the moon in June 2025. The 4.4-ton (4 metric tons) rocket part is estimated to have struck the moon at roughly 5,400 mph (8,700 km/h).
The Science and the Concerns
Scientists and researchers are now examining the crash as a chance to study how impacts from space objects affect the Moon. Julianna Scheiman, a director at SpaceX who works with NASA's science and Dragon programs, told reporters that solar activity and gravitational forces combined. They combined to place the stage on its final path. While the event posed no danger to Earth, it has raised concerns about the growing amount of orbital debris. It also raised concerns about what could happen if such debris hits important satellites. A NASA spokesperson, Jimi Russell, says the collision poses 'no danger to Earth' and the US space agency will 'collect lunar data from the event and refine techniques for tracking objects in space'. NASA officials have confirmed there is no danger posed to Earth from this morning’s collision. Additionally, the impact could offer some benefits by providing scientists with a unique opportunity to observe a new crater’s formation, which may shed light on how such events have shaped the lunar surface over time. Specifically, the fact that this impact was predicted well enough in advance to potentially allow for imagery to be obtained during or shortly after the new crater was formed, could provide rare insights into the dynamics of how craters on the Moon develop. Additional information from the impact plume produced as lunar regolith is ejected from the impact site could offer valuable data for space agencies like NASA, which are currently preparing for a sustained human presence on the Moon.
Bill Gray, a developer of widely used astronomy software, commented on the incident. He called it an event of minor scientific interest. While he acknowledged that the impact could provide some useful data, he also noted that it highlights the growing issue of unmonitored space hardware. As more rocket launches take place, more objects remain in orbit. This creates a potential hazard in space. SpaceX and NASA are now discussing measures to avoid similar future incidents. They are part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a lunar base and conduct regular missions to the Moon. It would not want errant pieces of space junk impacting those assets. Astronomer Matt Bothwell warns about the dangers of space debris - human-made objects in orbit - and its potential impact on future missions. 'It could feasibly be, within a few decades, hard to get past Earth's orbit because space is so crowded,' Bothwell tells BBC Breakfast. Space Debris is Still a Concern Although the impact this morning was largely benign, this incident does underscore the growing challenge of managing space debris. Abandoned rocket hardware and other debris from space missions can pose long-term risks. While remaining in orbit, such materials can damage operational satellites or other spacecraft. Once they make their way back into Earth’s atmosphere, these leftovers from past space missions can sometimes survive reentry, even though they are designed to disintegrate when subjected to such conditions. In recent years, a growing number of components associated with SpaceX rockets have survived reentry and collided with Earth. In May 2024, The Debrief was the first to report that an object discovered on a stretch of property in the Western North Carolina mountains was likely space debris from a SpaceX launch, which NASA officials later confirmed. More recently, a series of unusual metallic spheres were discovered by residents of a beachside community in Australia, which were also confirmed to have been materials associated with a SpaceX launch. Fortunately, no injuries or damage to property have been reported following these events.
Studying human-made impacts like these will also be essential for managing the potential risks to future astronauts and missions, like the permanent moon base NASA hopes to build. 'Now that we're in an era where we're going to have more and more astronauts going back to the moon, perhaps permanently, we also want to understand how much of a risk these artificial impacts pose,' Benjamin Fernando, a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory and co-author of a recent study on the impact, told CBC. 'It presents a different set of hazards than say the Apollo astronauts faced on the lunar surface from the average background meteoroids that are striking the moon every day. And what we want to try and do with this event is understand both the direct [and indirect] hazards.' This is not the first piece of human-made equipment to crash into the Moon. In March 2022, a Chinese rocket stage unintentionally hit the lunar surface after completing a test mission. NASA itself deliberately crashed a rocket stage into the Moon in 2009 as part of a scientific study on the effects of lunar impact. More recent crashes include India's Chandrayaan-2 lander in 2019 and Israel's Beresheet lander in the same year. The Israeli mission carried a payload that included tiny tardigrades, microscopic creatures known for their ability to survive extreme conditions. Russia’s nuclear-powered Luna-25 mission also crashed in 2023. NASA also intentionally crashed stages from its Saturn V rockets into the Moon during the 1970s to study the seismic effects of the impacts. Now, with plans for a permanent lunar base and regular astronaut landings, the space agency is taking the issue of space debris seriously. It wants to ensure that future missions are not disrupted by random impacts or uncontrolled objects. The recent collision has reignited conversations about how the space industry can better manage the growing amount of space junk and the potential risks it may pose to human activities beyond Earth.
Because the Moon has virtually no atmosphere, incoming objects strike its surface without slowing down significantly. Even relatively small spacecraft components travel at extremely high velocities, releasing enormous amounts of kinetic energy upon impact.