A four-tonne section of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is due to hit the Moon on Wednesday in an unintentional collision, NASA said, creating a new crater and generating an opportunity for follow-up scientific observations.

The object, described as “school-bus-size”, is the second stage of a Falcon 9 launch that carried a lunar lander for Firefly Aerospace toward the Moon in January 2025. The stage has been travelling through space since last year, drifting among other tracked pieces of orbital debris.

Impact Details

NASA said the rocket body is expected to strike at about 06.35am GMT, crashing into the lunar surface at an estimated speed of 5,400 mph (8,690 km/h). The impact is expected to kick up a plume of lunar dust, likely illuminated by sunlight, though NASA said it would be difficult to observe from Earth with the naked eye.

The agency expects the collision to produce a crater about 60 ft (18 metres) wide and 12 ft (four metres) deep. It said dust and rock would be thrown outward as ejecta.

The stage is forecast to hit Einstein crater on the Moon’s western limb, a region that is often challenging to view from Earth.

Why The Stage Reached the Moon

Ordinarily, the stages of launch vehicles either re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up or fall into the ocean after delivering a payload to a specific orbit. In this case, NASA said the January mission required more thrust than missions aimed at orbits closer to Earth, leaving the Falcon 9 second stage in space.

The stage had dumped its remaining fuel and cannot be controlled. NASA said it remained on an orbital path among thousands of pieces of debris, with active satellites needing to avoid such objects.

Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX director of NASA science and Dragon programmes, said on Monday that solar activity and gravity forces had combined to place the stage on a trajectory ending at the Moon.

What NASA Will Do

NASA said there is no danger to Earth from the planned impact. The agency and its partners plan to look for chances to image the site before and after the collision, with any collected data helping scientists “better understand artificial impacts and their exploration implications”.

Jimi Russell, speaking for NASA, said on Tuesday that researchers were planning to gather lunar data from the event and refine techniques for tracking objects in space.

Independent astronomer Bill Gray, whose widely used astronomy software was cited in connection with the report published in April, said the incident could have minor scientific interest and that it did not pose a danger to anyone.

Gray also said the episode highlights shortcomings in the way leftover hardware is disposed of after launches.

Past Moon Impacts And Recent SpaceX Results

Impacts with rocket stages on the Moon are rare. A Chinese rocket stage crashed into the lunar surface in March 2022 after completing a lunar test mission. In 2009, NASA intentionally sent a rocket stage into the Moon to study the plume of material kicked up by the impact.

Other spacecraft that aimed to land softly on the Moon in recent years have also crashed. Russia’s Luna-25 mission failed in 2023, while India’s Chandrayaan-2 lander crashed in 2019. Israel’s Beresheet lander also crashed that year; its payload included tardigrades, microscopic animals known for surviving radiation and other harsh conditions, which may still be present on the surface.

Scheiman said NASA and SpaceX are discussing ways to prevent similar lunar impacts in future.

The announcement comes after SpaceX reported on Tuesday a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss alongside a revenue increase in its first report as a public company. Even so, the company’s shares fell after investors expressed continued scepticism about its ability to deliver on long-term targets.

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5 August 2026

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A truck-sized piece of abandoned SpaceX hardware is set to slam into the Moon at more than 5,000mph tonight, giving astronomers a rare chance to witness a human-made lunar impact in real time. While the collision itself will be almost impossible to see from Earth, scientists believe the towering cloud of debris it creates could briefly become visible through telescopes across parts of North and South America.

The impact is expected at 2:35 a.m. EDT on 5 August, marking an unusual scientific opportunity rather than a threat to Earth.

A Decades-Old Rocket Meets Its End

The object is the spent upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched in 2005 to send two privately funded lunar spacecraft into orbit. After completing its mission, the booster was left in a long, looping orbit before gravity finally sealed its fate.

Researchers predict it will strike near the Moon's Einstein crater at around 5,436mph. Although that speed is immense, it is still far slower than the velocity of most natural asteroid impacts.

The Flash Will Be Hidden — But the Debris May Not

Scientists say the impact flash will last less than a second and occur on the Moon's sunlit side, making it effectively invisible from Earth. Even at its brightest, the flash is expected to be far dimmer than Saturn, while the resulting crater—around 27 metres wide and five metres deep—will be too small to detect with ground-based telescopes.

The real spectacle could come moments later. Computer simulations suggest the collision will launch a plume of lunar dust and debris as high as 50 kilometres above the surface, where sunlight could illuminate it for up to seven minutes.

Astronomers Prepare for a Rare Observation

Professional observatories and experienced amateur astronomers are preparing coordinated observations of the event. Scientists say observers across continental North America and parts of South America will have the best chance of spotting the faint debris cloud, provided they have telescopes of at least four inches in diameter and know precisely where to look.

Researchers caution that the plume will still be difficult to detect, but even a successful glimpse could provide valuable data about how material is ejected from the lunar surface.

More Than a Spectacle

The impact could help scientists understand how discarded spacecraft affect the Moon as exploration accelerates. Measuring how far debris travels will be increasingly important as more missions target the lunar surface and plans for permanent bases gather pace.

The event also builds on lessons from previous intentional lunar impacts. NASA's 2009 Centaur rocket collision uncovered evidence of water ice near the Moon's south pole, reshaping future exploration plans and reinforcing the scientific value of controlled impacts.

A SpaceX rocket will hit the moon at 5,000 mph tonight. Here's what to expect.

The local inhabitants will not be impressed!

Musk .....now influencing events

.........out of this world !!

Is Elon strapped to it??

I think SpaceX should be at least charged with littering and prohibited from launching any more rockets for at least a year. 😡

19 hours ago, webfact said:

Impacts with rocket stages on the Moon are rare.

Long ago:

So we have made a mess of this World ,now move on to the Moon with

the trash ,and they are trying to spin it by saying could have scientific

results,

regards worgeordie

Apparently the collision has already happened.

https://apnews.com/article/spacex-rocket-moon-crash-elon-musk-d64a98138fd19241700461c87b49e201

Unintentional collision?

Wow.

What a great accomplishment 😁

Elon Musk

has done for

Earth

America

South Africa 🏆

The making of Elon Musk: how did his childhood in apartheid South Africa shape him? | Elon Musk | The Guardian https://share.google/y8t5rU2InUDgmZc6s

3 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

What a great accomplishment 😁

Elon Musk

has done for

Earth

America

South Africa

Yes - I wonder if Elon Musk is responsible for Trump's policy of fast tracking white South African farmers as immigrants to America.

1 minute ago, ronnie50 said:

Yes - I wonder if Elon Musk is responsible for Trump's policy of fast tracking white South African farmers as immigrants to America.

I have no problem favoring unqualified White immigrants over the qualified non-white immigrants...

As long as they arrive to the US immigration office on a SpaceX rocket. 😄

Edited August 6Aug 6 by SiSePuede419
SpaceX is QUALITY #1

"Impacts with rocket stages on the Moon are rare."

✅ Bottom line:

NASA has crashed objects into the Moon many times—but always on purpose, never by accident 😄

Translation: It's not often we <deleted> up the math this badly.

Speaking of math, the differential calculus Newtonian equation for finding a stash that you forgot you had...

√Candy + Blueberry π/ Z^style = cuppa teargas beans funk

Thickness! Girth! A looker and a cooker.

Uploading Attachment...

On 8/6/2026 at 9:57 AM, SiSePuede419 said:

Unintentional collision?

Wow.

What a great accomplishment 😁

Elon Musk

has done for

Earth

America

South Africa 🏆

The making of Elon Musk: how did his childhood in apartheid South Africa shape him? | Elon Musk | The Guardian https://share.google/y8t5rU2InUDgmZc6s

Sorry whiny communists.

He builds great things.

19 minutes ago, FinChin67 said:

Sorry whiny communists.

He builds great things.

Sure, sure.

Full Self Driving is right around the corner*

Hell of a corner, Junior 😀

So anyone who is not a Musk Cult Member is a Communist? Uh, huh.

That's exactly what I would expect a cult member to claim.

* 2015–2016: Elon Musk repeatedly said full autonomy was about 2 years away in interviews and earnings calls.

Edited August 7Aug 7 by SiSePuede419
Hell of a corner

23 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

Sure, sure.

Full Self Driving is right around the corner*

Hell of a corner, Junior 😀

So anyone who is not a Musk Cult Member is a Communist? Uh, huh.

That's exactly what I would expect a cult member to claim.

* 2015–2016: Elon Musk repeatedly said full autonomy was about 2 years away in interviews and earnings calls.

FSD is doing well. So is Tesla, Space X, Neuralink, Starlink and Boring Company.

This is how little communist ego destroys economy.

1 minute ago, FinChin67 said:

FSD is doing well. So is Tesla, Space X, Neuralink, Starlink and Boring Company.

This is how little communist ego destroys economy.

FSD is doing well?

Maybe on Planet Ketamine.

But not according to reality down here on Planet Earth.

Bottom line

FSD has made impressive progress and is one of the most advanced consumer driver-assist systems. It is not fully self-driving (FSD) or reliably autonomous and is still an incomplete, supervised driver-assistance system.

Planet Special K 🪐

Where 🌈 reality 🦄 is anything you believe it is

On 8/8/2026 at 10:01 AM, SiSePuede419 said:

FSD is doing well?

Maybe on Planet Ketamine.

But not according to reality down here on Planet Earth.

Bottom line

FSD has made impressive progress and is one of the most advanced consumer driver-assist systems. It is not fully self-driving (FSD) or reliably autonomous and is still an incomplete, supervised driver-assistance system.

Planet Special K 🪐

Where 🌈 reality 🦄 is anything you believe it is

You AI slop images don't carry much weight.

1 - This is 80-year-old Ed from Atlanta. He just sold his $200k Mercedes S-Class and bought a brand new Frost Blue Model Y Performance because he wanted FSD. "I like the self-driving. It's really been great. I feel a lot safer."

2 - 25000 miles on FSD

Mega-Cap Movers (Market Cap:$200 billion USD or higher)

SpaceX (SPCX); Argus upgrades SpaceX stock rating on strong revenue growth: +11.29%

Tesla Motors (TSLA): +2.46%

Keep whining.

4 minutes ago, FinChin67 said:

Mega-Cap Movers (Market Cap:$200 billion USD or higher)

SpaceX (SPCX); Argus upgrades SpaceX stock rating on strong revenue growth: +11.29%

Tesla Motors (TSLA): +2.46%

Wow, those stocks had finally a winning day?