SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage crashes into the Moon
A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage struck the Moon on August 5, 2026, in an unplanned impact tracked by NASA. The stage had carried Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander to the Moon in January 2025. Sources: NASA, NPR.
A used SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage crashed into the Moon on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, near the Einstein and Bell craters on the lunar far side. NASA says the stage was never commanded to maneuver away after it deployed Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander in January 2025; solar activity and gravitational forces sent it back toward the Moon. The roughly 10,000-pound stage struck the surface at more than 5,000 miles per hour. NASA estimates the impact carved out a crater about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep, throwing dust and rock outward as ejecta. For comparison, a meteoroid with the same energy hits the Moon about every six days, according to NASA. Independent astronomers first identified the trajectory using public data; NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies at JPL later confirmed a 100% chance of impact. The agency plans to use its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea's ShadowCam instrument to try to image the impact site. The impact posed no danger to Earth and was not visible to the naked eye. Source: NASA, NPR.