4 tonne piece of SpaceX rocket smashes into moon

A four-tonne SpaceX rocket piece hurtling through space for over 18 months is believed to have smashed into the moon at high speed around noon Wednesday (India time). The school-bus-size object is the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had launched a lunar lander from Firefly Aerospace in Jan 2025.The rocket part is likely to have crashed into the lunar surface at 8,690kmph, kicking up a plume of lunar dust. US and South Korean lunar satellites are positioned to photograph the site of impact — Einstein crater on moon’s western limb, often difficult to see from Earth — but it may take days to receive that information. Astronomers are waiting to catch a glimpse of the crash site to study the debris that may have been caused by the collision.‘Nasa and SpaceX discussing ways to prevent future lunar impacts’The impact is unintentional, SpaceX said.