SpaceX Falcon 9 Stage Strikes Moon Near Einstein Crater

A spent Falcon 9 upper stage struck the Moon early Wednesday near Einstein Crater, delivering the second known accidental impact by discarded rocket hardware on the lunar surface. The roughly four-ton object, launched in January 2025 during a Firefly Aerospace mission, had drifted for 18 months under gravitational tugs from the Sun, Earth and Moon plus solar radiation pressure before its trajectory ended at 5,400 miles per hour.

No spacecraft were positioned for live imagery. Observatories in the Americas began examining telescope data hours after the predicted 2:35 a.m. ET impact to confirm the event and measure the resulting crater and dust plume. Scientists expect the analysis to take days or weeks.

SpaceX director Julianna Scheiman told reporters the path resulted from solar activity and gravity forces acting on the uncontrolled stage after it expended its fuel. Astronomer Bill Gray, who tracked the object, described the scientific value as probably minor while noting the episode illustrates disposal challenges for hardware left in deep space.

The stage originated from a mission that required extra thrust to send lunar landers beyond Earth orbit, leaving the empty booster in a looping trajectory instead of the usual re-entry burn. Similar past events remain limited: a Chinese rocket stage hit the Moon in 2022, and NASA deliberately crashed stages in the 1970s for seismic studies.

NASA and SpaceX have begun discussing procedures to reduce future uncontrolled lunar impacts ahead of the Artemis program’s planned crewed landings and base construction later this decade. Orbital mechanics experts continue to monitor thousands of other objects that could follow comparable paths.