The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket struck the Moon on August 5, 2026, creating an 18-meter-wide impact crater. Telescopes in Chile detected spectral lines of sodium and lithium in the debris plume, while NASA released new satellite imagery detailing the blast site.
Impact Confirmation and Telescopic Detection in Chile
The unintended collision occurred as the Falcon 9 upper stage, roughly the size of a bus and weighing approximately four tonnes, intersected the lunar surface near the Einstein crater in the Moon’s northern hemisphere. The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed on the Moon this Wednesday morning, following an unexpected change in trajectory. Scientists estimated that the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket would hit the surface of the Moon at approximately 8:35 a.m. Wednesday (Paris time). Emmanuel Jehin, an astrophysicist at the University of Liège, was a guest on RTL info 19h to answer these questions. Assuming all fuel had been consumed, the study authors estimated that the craft weighed about four tonnes. Benjamin Fernando, a researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and lead author of a recent study dedicated to this expected collision, also confirmed to AFP that the impact had occurred. The collision was scheduled for March 4, on the far side of the Moon, according to statements reported by a NASA spokesperson.
The Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), located in Chile, detected spectral lines, the observatory announced in a social media post. The ESO specified that these were chemical fingerprints of sodium and lithium in the impact plume, which lasted from five to ten minutes after the collision. The ESO detailed that sodium probably originated from the lunar soil, whereas lithium could have come from the rocket itself. Emmanuel Jehin, an astrophysicist at the University of Liège, confirmed during his television appearance that the impact was barely visible: “Yes, that’s true, and it’s not that surprising because the Moon is already very bright by nature. And what we were supposed to observe was precisely a very quick small flash of light, and eventually a plume of matter escaping from the Moon.” The astrophysicist added: “But above all, what needs to be known is that the images that were taken will have to be processed. It could take a few hours or even a few days to really distinguish if this impact was clearly visible,” before concluding: “We are completely sure that it did take place because in fact the debris…”
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Captures Crater Details
Weeks after the initial collision, the American space agency (NASA) published new images on Tuesday of the crater created when the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed on the Moon on August 5. These photographs, taken between August 11 and 12, are not the first of the impact site, as the Korean space agency published some as early as August 6. The images obtained notably highlighted lighter and darker streaks radiating around the crater, which is 18 m wide and less than 3 meters deep according to NASA. According to the American agency, the darker streaks “are composed of dust and surface rocks, modified over the long term by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays and micrometeorite impacts” that were brought to the lunar surface by the shock.
These images were captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) which, to photograph a precise point on the Moon, must wait for that location to pass into its field of vision. This took six days in this case, NASA explained. It was also necessary to tilt the craft with sufficient precision so that its camera pointed toward the crater while passing approximately 100 kilometers above, and then trigger it at the right moment. “If the camera had taken the shot even 10 seconds too early or too late, the target would have shifted by about 16 kilometers relative to the center of the image,” the space agency explained. The lighter streaks, for their part, are due to materials excavated from deeper zones of the lunar subsurface upon impact.
Orbital Mechanics and Prior Tracking
Astronomer Bill Gray, creator of software allowing the calculation of trajectories of asteroids and other objects, was the first to realize the future impact. The American space agency tracked the trajectory of the second stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and a NASA spokesperson described the event as an “exciting research opportunity.” The trajectory of this cylindrical object was recently modified by a close pass to the Moon, and experts calculated that it would now randomly intersect that of the celestial body.
Scientific Value and Safety Assessments
The collision is harmless to Earth, NASA assures. The American agency emphasized that finding this crater would be difficult and could take weeks or even months, but that this unique event presents an exciting research opportunity. Studying the crater formed by an object of known mass and speed (in this case, 4 tonnes), and the matter thus displaced could help advance selenology, the scientific study of the Moon. Rocket stages have been projected against the Moon for scientific purposes in the past, but this is the first detected unintentional collision.
