An Elon Musk SpaceX rocket is set to crash into the moon

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:17:54 +0000

A dead SpaceX rocket stage is hurtling toward the moon and astronomers want the world watching when it hits. Astronomers around the world are gearing up to record a possible blast of lunar dust near the moon's Einstein Crater, after a piece of space junk is expected to end its 19-month drift there with a bang. The object in question is the spent upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, cataloged as 2025-010D, which is on course to slam into the lunar surface on August 5, 2026 at approximately 06:35 UTC.

A SpaceX rocket is about to crash into the moon—scientists will be watching

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:50:27 +0000

Astronomers are gearing up for a unique moon observation event: a stray piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is on track to hit the lunar surface on August 5. The collision and its aftermath, which may be visible from Earth and space-based telescopes, present an opportunity for some singular science. In a new paper posted to the preprint server arXiv.org, 23 astronomers call on the scientific community to observe the event and note that it may be possible to record the impact as it happens. The crash could reveal new information about what happens in the immediate aftermath of an impact on the lunar surface and offer insights into the hazards of errant space junk to the moon. The meandering spacecraft was first spotted by amateur astronomer Bill Gray. Launched in January 2025, the Falcon 9 ferried two landers to the moon—Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and Japanese firm ispace’s Hakuto-R. After delivery, the rocket’s upper stage was meant to burn up on reentry in Earth’s atmosphere. But as Scientific American reported in May, that didn’t happen.

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An Elon Musk SpaceX rocket is set to crash into the moon

A SpaceX rocket is about to crash into the moon—scientists will be watching