Stray SpaceX Rocket Crashes Into the Moon Near Einstein Crater

A spent upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the Moon on Wednesday morning, striking near the famous Einstein crater at a speed of around 5,400 mph (8,700 km/h). The accident has become an unexpected scientific windfall for planetary researchers.

How the rocket ended up on a collision course

The rocket stage — roughly the size of a five-storey building and weighing at least 4,000 kg — was launched from Florida in January last year, carrying two lunar landers into space. Once its mission to propel those landers onto their lunar trajectory was complete, the spent stage was left drifting in a long, looping orbit. Over 18 months, subtle gravitational tugs from the Earth, Moon, and Sun, along with pressure from sunlight, gradually nudged it onto a collision path. Astronomers tracking the debris confirmed the impact was inevitable.

A controlled experiment in disguise

The impact occurred at approximately 06:35 UTC. Because researchers already know the rocket stage's exact size, mass, speed, and point of impact, what would otherwise be a random accident becomes a rare, controlled experiment — a gift for planetary science.

• Scientists can test models of how impacts excavate craters and scatter debris
• The impact could reveal fresh lunar geology from beneath the surface
• Data will help engineers design safer lunar landers and future Moon bases
• South Korea's Danuri orbiter passed the site beforehand; footage awaited
• NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will photograph before-and-after images in coming days

Not the first human-made impact

This is far from humanity's first deliberate or accidental collision with the Moon. The Soviet space probe Luna 2 was the first in 1959, followed by NASA's Ranger probes in the 1960s, several Apollo-era rocket stages, and the LCROSS mission in 2009, which was deliberately crashed to search for water ice. The last confirmed accidental impact, in 2022, was a leftover booster from a Chinese lunar mission launched in 2014 — a reminder that space debris continues to accumulate above our heads.