A discarded SpaceX rocket stage has crashed into the lunar surface at 5,400 miles per hour (8,690 km/h), carving out a new crater that has been captured in satellite imagery by South Korea's space agency.
The 4,500kg, 39ft-long (12m) Falcon 9 second stage careened into the Moon on Wednesday with an impact force equivalent to 15,000 sticks of dynamite, or three tonnes of TNT.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) confirmed that its Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site at 7:34 am BST, shortly after the collision occurred. The orbiter also took photographs 30 minutes before the impact, providing a direct before-and-after comparison of the lunar terrain.
Scientists estimate that the collision created a new crater measuring up to 27 metres across and five metres deep. The area surrounding the crash site is noticeably darker after the rocket carved out the landscape and rained dust and rocks onto the surrounding terrain.
Lunar Orbiters Track Impact Site
In a post on X, KARI said: "Danuri began observations about 30 minutes before the collision and, through orbit control, passed over the impact site multiple times, conducting a total of 8 imaging sessions. Through this observation, changes in the terrain around the impact site and traces of ejecta spread were confirmed."
KARI noted that its observations will soon be backed up by photographs from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Although NASA's orbiting observer was not in position to capture the crash live, it is expected to take clear photos of the crater next week.
Meanwhile, a group of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain claim they recorded the only footage of the impact taking place. Although the Falcon 9 booster hit just behind the Moon's limb, hiding the actual flash of impact, astronomers managed to capture the rising plume of dust and debris kicked out into space.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, in January last year. It was carrying two private lunar landers, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience, into lunar orbit and was not intended to crash into the Moon.
Space Weather Deflects Secondary Stage
The primary booster of a Falcon 9 rocket is designed to be reusable, returning safely to Earth after launching upper stages into space. However, later sections are jettisoned and left drifting through space, where they often burn up in Earth's atmosphere after several years.
While this particular secondary stage was never intended to hit the Moon, a combination of lunar gravity and unexpected solar weather eventually pushed it onto a collision course. The dangerous trajectory was initially spotted by independent astronomers before being confirmed by NASA's Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies.
Scientists around the world have been extremely excited by the event because it offers a rare opportunity to observe a lunar impact under relatively controlled conditions. The Moon is hit by thousands of meteorites every year, but most are too small to pick up with telescopes or do not have a known size and mass. By contrast, researchers know exactly what a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage weighs and what materials it is made of.
Giant Laboratory Experiment
The event essentially turns the impact into a giant laboratory experiment, providing ideal conditions to learn more about how collisions have shaped the Moon's history. Similar impacts have occurred previously: in 2006, the European Space Agency deliberately crashed the SMART-1 satellite into the lunar surface at 4,470 miles per hour (7,200 km/h) to observe the result. The last time a rocket accidentally crashed into the Moon was in 2022, when pieces of a Chinese spacecraft left two craters on the far side.
Researchers emphasized that these impacts pose no threat to human life, and the debris kicked up will not affect Earth. However, scientists are increasingly concerned about the growing volume of human junk gathering in space. Roughly 3,000 human-made objects rest on the Moon with a combined weight of approximately 190 tonnes, and researchers expect many more to rain down in the future.
While individual impacts directly affect only a small region of the lunar surface, their secondary effects could prove disastrous. Dr Mark Burchell, an astronomer from the University of Kent, told the Daily Mail: "The impact does not just make a crater, it creates ejecta, a sort of debris that moves away from the impact site at speed."
Dr Burchell added: "That debris will rain down over a much larger region, 10s to 100s of kilometres away. Each piece of debris may be small, but could puncture the skin of a pressurised vessel, bad news for the astronauts inside, or penetrate into a robotic spacecraft and damage its circuits."
Risks to Future Lunar Infrastructure
Scientists note that while current risk levels remain low, long-term space exploration requires proactive planning. Dr Matthew Bothwell, an astronomer from the University of Cambridge, told the Daily Mail: "There are thousands of things orbiting around Earth these days, and a crash with any one of them could scupper a mission."
Dr Bothwell explained: "Right now the risk is pretty small, but there are plans for some serious Lunar infrastructure in the coming decades, with NASA, China, and various private companies planning landers and even permanent Moon bases. So while it is not a problem today, it is the kind of thing we should be thinking about so it does not become a problem in future years."
Human Exploration of the Lunar Surface
The crash adds to the history of human activity on the Moon, where a total of 12 people have walked across six separate Apollo missions:
- Apollo 11 (July 21, 1969): Neil Armstrong made history as the first person to set foot on the lunar surface, before being followed by crewmate Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.
- Apollo 12 (November 19 and 20, 1969): Pete Conrad and Alan Bean walked on the Moon during this mission. The crew experienced two lightning strikes just after their Saturn V rocket launched.
- Apollo 14 (February 5, 1971): Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell launched on January 31, 1971, and landed in the Fra Mauro region, the original destination for Apollo 13.
- Apollo 15 (July 31, 1971): Dave Scott and James Irwin landed on the Moon and stayed for three days, until August 2.
- Apollo 16 (April 21, 1972): John Young and Charlie Duke walked on the surface. When the crew reached lunar orbit, the mission was almost aborted due to a problem with the command and service module's main engine.
- Apollo 17 (December 11, 1972): Eugene "Gene" Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt were the final people to walk on the Moon. Before departing, Cernan scratched the initials of his daughter Tracy into the lunar regolith. Because the Moon lacks wind or rain to erode the surface, her initials are expected to stay for a very long time.
