A four-tonne piece of SpaceX hardware struck the lunar surface at high speed on Wednesday, marking only the second known accidental impact of discarded rocket debris on the Moon.
A section of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, approximately the size of a school bus, has collided with the Moon's surface near the Einstein Crater, according to orbital tracking data analysed by independent astronomers and space-tracking agencies. The four-tonne object, which was the second stage of a rocket launched in early 2025, struck the lunar surface at roughly 8,700 kilometres per hour with force equivalent to approximately three tonnes of TNT.
The collision occurred after the debris's trajectory was gradually altered over 18 months by gravitational forces exerted by the Sun, Earth, and Moon. According to SpaceX, while the impact course was unintentional, the vehicle's remaining fuel reserves made it impossible to prevent. Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX's director of NASA science and Dragon programmes, attributed the incident to "a mixture of solar activity and gravity forces" that redirected the object toward the Moon.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea's Danuri spacecraft have repositioned their instruments to observe the collision site. Researchers expect to document the ejected dust plume and capture high-resolution before-and-after imagery of the newly formed crater, though the instantaneous impact flash will be obscured by daylight conditions on the lunar surface.
This marks only the second documented instance of accidentally discarded rocket hardware impacting the Moon. A Chinese Long March 3C rocket segment crashed into the lunar far side on March 4, 2022, creating an unusual double crater. Space tracking expert Bill Gray cautioned that while the collision presents no immediate danger, it highlights concerns about debris disposal practices. "Things are getting crowded up there," he told reporters.
