The SpaceX Rocket Finally Hit the Moon. Here's What Scientists Saw
A spent SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage impacted the Moon on August 5, 2026, creating a new crater. Scientists utilized the unplanned event to study lunar impact dynamics using data from South Korea's Danuri orbiter.
Why it matters
The event highlights the growing issue of space debris and the potential for using accidental impacts as opportunities for planetary science research.
It happened, folks. The dead SpaceX rocket stage we wrote about last week really did hit the Moon.
At about 06:35 UTC on August 5, 2026, the spent upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 slammed into the lunar surface at roughly 8,700 kilometers per hour (5,400 mph). The four-ton piece of space hardware punched out a fresh crater and blasted lunar dust high above the surface.
What began as a piece of space junk had suddenly become an unplanned science experiment, and it was a surprisingly useful one.
The object was the empty upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched in January 2025 to send two lunar landers toward the Moon. Its reusable booster returned to Earth, but the upper stage remained in space, drifting through a long, looping orbit shaped by the gravity of Earth, the Moon and the Sun .
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