Giant New Crater Discovered on the Moon... The Cause: SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket

Falcon 9 Upper Stage Collides After More Than a Year Adrift
No Direct Impact Footage, But Elemental Plumes Detected
Follow-up Confirmation by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

The upper stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which had been drifting in outer space for about 1 year and 7 months, was confirmed to have collided with the lunar surface at a speed of 8,700 km/h. While the moment of impact was not directly captured, astronomers have determined that the rocket indeed crashed into the moon based on the traces of elemental emissions observed immediately after the collision.

On August 5 (local time), international media outlets, including AP and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), reported that the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket—measuring over 12 meters in length and weighing around 4 tons—appears to have impacted the area near the Einstein and Bell craters on the moon at about 6:35 a.m. The collision site is located on the bright western edge of the moon as seen from Earth, near the boundary where the front and back sides of the moon meet, making observation from the ground challenging.

The upper part of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which had been drifting in space for about 1 year and 7 months, was confirmed to have collided with the lunar surface at a speed of 8,700 km/h. Reuters Yonhap News

The upper stage struck the lunar surface at an approximate speed of 2.4 km per second, or about 8,700 km per hour. Based on its mass and velocity, the energy released by the collision is calculated to be equivalent to the simultaneous detonation of about 3 tons of TNT explosives. NASA expects the impact to have created a crater approximately 18 meters in diameter and about 4 meters deep. Another research team estimated the crater’s diameter to be about 40 meters, highlighting differences in scale depending on the analytical models used.

No photographs or video footage of the precise collision moment have been obtained yet. However, a research team at Boston University observed the movement of sodium and lithium dispersed across several dozen kilometers immediately after the impact using the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The detection of sodium, originating from the lunar surface, and lithium, presumably from the rocket's materials, for 5 to 10 minutes following the collision, served as evidence supporting the event. This crashed object was the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket launched on January 15 of last year, which carried the lunar lander "Blue Ghost Mission 1" from US-based Firefly Aerospace and the lunar lander "Resilience" from Japanese company ispace.

While Blue Ghost successfully landed on the moon, Resilience crashed during its descent. After placing both landers on lunar trajectories, the rocket’s upper stage vented any remaining fuel and became uncontrollable, remaining in space. Subsequent sun activity and the combined gravitational influences of Earth and the moon appear to have altered its path, eventually leading to the lunar collision.

This recent collision has once again highlighted the issue of debris management in cislunar space, the area of outer space between the Earth and the Moon, amid the expansion of lunar exploration. Since the 1950s, the total mass of artificial objects left on the lunar surface, including landers, rockets, and various equipment, is estimated to exceed 200 tons. Photo by AP Yonhap News Agency

There is also keen interest in the scale of dust and rock ejection resulting from the impact. Preliminary simulations suggested that a fan-shaped cloud of dust could rise to heights of about 15 to 20 kilometers above the lunar surface, with the central plume potentially reaching as high as 75 to 100 kilometers. The exact location of the impact and the size of the resulting crater are expected to be confirmed through observations by lunar orbiters. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the ShadowCam instrument aboard South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter are scheduled to photograph the lunar surface before and after the collision. However, depending on lighting and orbiter positioning, it may take several days or longer to secure these images.

This recent collision has again brought attention to the issue of debris management in "cis-lunar space," the region between Earth and the Moon, as lunar exploration expands. Since the 1950s, the total mass of artificial objects left on the lunar surface—including probes, rockets, and various equipment—is estimated to exceed 200 tons. NASA explained that intentionally crashing rocket upper stages onto the lunar surface is considered a technically viable and safe disposal method. However, this particular collision was not a planned disposal. Experts pointed out that as the number of orbiters, scientific equipment, and crewed bases on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit increases in the future, uncontrolled rocket debris could pose a threat to facilities and human life. Therefore, they emphasized the need for more precise tracking and internationally standardized procedures for dealing with such debris.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.