SpaceX Rocket Slams Into Moon at 5,400mph

UPDATE Aug 5, 2026 7:30 AM CDT

A SpaceX rocket remnant has slammed into the moon, in what CBS News calls "a rare case of a man-made collision with the lunar surface." The 45-foot-long, 8,800-pound booster—"the size of a building," per the Guardian—is believed to have crashed shortly after 2:30am ET, near the moon's Einstein and Bell craters, while traveling at a speed of around 5,400mph. A scientist with Boston University's Center for Space Physics says evidence of the crash came via an observable plume of sodium and lithium gas; the actual impact was said to not be visible to the naked eye. "The impact poses no danger to Earth, and NASA scientists are planning to collect lunar data from the event and refine techniques for tracking objects in space," a NASA spokeperson said, per the Guardian.

Aug 4, 2026 7:16 PM CDT

A SpaceX rocket stage is about to slam into the moon. The discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 that launched two private robotic lunar landers in January 2025 is now on an accidental crash course, set to hit near Einstein Crater around 2:35am ET on Wednesday at roughly 5,400mph—hard enough to gouge a 90-foot-wide crater and kick lunar dust miles into space. Astronomers in the Americas, especially the eastern US and Canada, along with much of South America, will have the best view, CNN reports. "If you imagine the moon is a clock, it'll sort of roughly hit where the 10 would be," says Paul Wiegert, a professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Western Ontario.

Experts say the impact flash may be too dim to see, but the stream of ejected material will likely be visible for tens of minutes, the AP reports. In a previous lunar space-junk impact, a Chinese rocket stage from a 2014 mission slammed into the moon in 2022, creating two new craters. Astrophysicists say this hit will be harmless, though Jesus Diaz at Fast Company warns that the casual dumping of space hardware isn't. He sees the collision as a warning shot for a future where the US, China, and private companies race to set up lunar bases and mining operations. In that world, unpredictable rocket husks become real threats to astronauts and infrastructure.

Diaz criticizes operators—SpaceX included—for choosing cheaper missions over safe disposal, and calls for stricter rules on traffic control and controlled deorbiting before lunar activity accelerates. Space, he writes, "belongs to all of us, but organizations keep treating it as private real estate in the name of profit." Space tracking expert Bill Gray agrees that the threat from the ever-increasing number of items in orbit is growing. "Things are getting crowded up there," he tells the AP.