SpaceX rocket debris is on a collision course with the moon
The leftover hardware from a 2025 launch is on an uncontrolled trajectory toward the moon, where it will slam into the lunar surface at 5,400 mph.
This video shot from Titusville, Florida, captures the moment the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket transits the sun during a recent launch to deliver supplies to the International Space Station on April 11.
A piece of a SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon, and researchers have already pinpointed exactly where and when it will hit.
The upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket is expected to crash into the moon on Aug. 5, 2026, according to Bill Gray of Project Pluto, which tracks near-Earth objects and space debris. At impact, the rocket stage will be traveling at roughly 5,400 miles per hour, or about seven times the speed of sound.
The stage was launched on Jan. 15, 2025, carrying Blue Ghost Mission 1, a lunar lander operated by Firefly Aerospace and nicknamed "Ghost Riders in the Sky." The mission successfully touched down on the moon on March 2, 2025. After delivering its payload, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket was left on a trajectory that would lead to an eventual lunar impact.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A with a payload of a pair of lunar landers at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
When it hits, the rocket stage will slam into the Earth-facing side of the moon near a crater named Einstein. The collision is not expected to pose any danger, but it will carve a new crater into the lunar surface.
The impact will likely be too small to observe from Earth without specialized equipment, though researchers will be watching closely. Collisions like this offer scientists a rare opportunity to study the composition of the lunar surface based on the material kicked up by the crash.
The incident underscores a growing challenge: once a rocket stage completes its job, it does not simply disappear. Researchers who track space debris say the problem will only grow as lunar missions become more frequent.
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