On 5 August 2026, a decommissioned upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the Moon near the Einstein crater. It is only the third known unintentional rocket impact on the Moon.
What happened
The roughly 3,900-kilogram upper stage came from the launch on 15 January 2025 that carried the two lunar landers Blue Ghost and Resilience to the Moon. Afterwards the stage drifted in a Moon-crossing Earth orbit – the impact was not planned. Astronomer Bill Gray had predicted it back in late April.
The new crater
NASA estimated the resulting crater at around 18 metres across and 3.7 metres deep. South Korea’s Danuri lunar probe then delivered an image of the fresh impact site. The event underlines a growing problem: space debris no longer stops at the Moon – precisely where landings and permanent stations are planned for the coming years.
