A SpaceX rocket's upper stage, which had been drifting in space for over a year, has undoubtedly crashed into the moon, according to scientists. The predicted collision occurred on Wednesday, marking another instance of lunar debris.
Retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell stated that observations on Tuesday night showed the 4-ton upper stage heading directly towards the moon. He is certain that the rocket has broken into numerous pieces scattered across the lunar surface near Einstein Crater. "There's no doubt in my mind" that the rocket "is now in teeny, little pieces scattered over the moon near Einstein Crater," McDowell told The Associated Press.
SpaceX is collaborating with NASA to prevent similar incidents in the future, with company representative Julianna Scheiman emphasizing that the crash was not intentional. A combination of solar activity and gravity inadvertently set the rocket on a collision course with the moon. McDowell added that even an unlikely asteroid strike during the rocket's final approach would have resulted in the same impact location.
Visual confirmation of the impact crater is expected next week, when NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flies over the impact site. Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek, who was observing the moon with a telescope at the predicted time of impact, reported no visual confirmation, acknowledging it was a "long shot."
The Falcon rocket's upper stage launched two private lunar landers, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience, on January 15, 2025. While Resilience later crashed, Blue Ghost successfully landed, marking a first for a private spacecraft. The upper stage had completed its primary mission of delivering the landers on course for the moon before becoming space debris.
As the moon becomes a more frequent destination for space exploration, with NASA planning a series of robotic missions to establish a sustainable lunar base, the issue of space debris is expected to grow. Major aerospace companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, are slated to provide landers for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon, potentially as early as 2028. "Things are going to get a lot busier near the moon," McDowell noted. "At that point an impact like this on the lunar surface plowing up huge amounts of dust going for hundreds of miles around is not going to be acceptable."