SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage to crash into Moon on Aug 5

An upper stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, launched in January 2025 to deliver the Blue Ghost and Hakuto‑R Resilience lunar landers, will strike the Moon on 5 August. The impact is predicted for around 02:35 EDT (06:34 UTC) near the Einstein crater on the Moon’s near‑side, at a speed of roughly 5,400 mph (8,700 km/h). Scientists estimate the collision will create a crater up to 27 metres wide and eject a dust plume that may rise tens of kilometres, observable with telescopes but not to the naked eye.

The event offers a rare opportunity for researchers to study lunar impact dynamics, debris behavior, and the risks that space junk poses to future lunar bases. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, South Korea’s Danuri probe, and amateur astronomers in the Americas, Brazil and Mexico are coordinating observations. The impact follows a similar accidental crash by a Chinese Long March 3C stage in 2022, underscoring growing concerns about orbital congestion and the need for international debris‑mitigation guidelines. No threat to Earth is expected.