A SpaceX rocket just crashed into Moon
What's the story
A four-ton piece of a SpaceX rocket, which has been floating in space since last year, is believed to have accidentally crashed into the Moon. The collision was not a threat to Earth but was expected to create a new lunar crater. The object is part of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander toward the Moon in January 2025.
Collision specifics
Rocket crash to create 60-feet-wide crater
The rocket body was expected to hit the Moon on Wednesday, crashing into its surface at a speed of around 8,700km/h.
The impact was expected to create a plume of lunar dust that would be hard to spot with the naked eye from Earth.
NASA has said that the collision would create a crater roughly 60-feet wide and 12-feet deep, throwing dust and rock outward as ejecta.
Observation challenges
Astronomers unable to confirm impact
Professional and amateur astronomers with powerful telescopes and cameras were unable to immediately confirm the impact.
This could be because the site of the collision was near the visible edge of the Moon.
NASA plans to look for opportunities to image this site before and after the impact, with any data collected helping scientists "better understand artificial impacts and their exploration implications."
Lunar collisions
Previous spacecraft crashes on Moon
Space junk impacts on the Moon are not common. A Chinese rocket stage crashed into the Moon in March 2022 after a lunar test mission.
In 2009, NASA intentionally crashed a rocket stage into the Moon to study the plume of lunar material kicked up by its impact.
However, several spacecraft intending to softly land on the Moon have crashed in recent years, including Russia's nuclear-powered Luna-25 mission in 2023 and India's Chandrayaan-2 lander mission in 2019.