SpaceX rocket thought to have crashed into the moon in unintentional collision
A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage is believed to have collided with the moon at high speed. NASA expects the impact to create a new crater and plans to use the event to study artificial impacts and space debris tracking.
Why it matters
The incident highlights the growing issue of space debris and the challenges of tracking rocket stages left in deep space.
A four-tonne piece of a discarded SpaceX rocket that has been floating in space since last year is believed to have unintentionally crashed into the moon at high speed, in a collision that poses no danger to Earth but was expected to blast out a new lunar crater.
The object, the size of a five-storey building, is part of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had launched a lunar lander from the US company Firefly Aerospace toward the moon in January 2025.
The rocket body was due to hit the moon about 6.35am Irish time, crashing into its surface at 8,690km/h. The impact was predicted to kick up a miles-long plume of lunar dust that, while illuminated by sunlight, would be difficult to spot with the naked eye from Earth.
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