posted 08-05-2026 06:58 AM               

NASA Will Attempt to Observe Rocket Part's Lunar Impact

Using ground-based telescopes and space-based assets, NASA and SpaceX are tracking a used Falcon 9 upper stage from a commercial mission expected to impact the Moon on Wednesday, Aug. 5, near the Einstein and Bell craters. 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.

On Jan. 15, 2025, SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket and successfully deployed Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander to the Moon under NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. Solar activity and gravitational forces caused the stage's unplanned return to the Moon. NASA and SpaceX remain in communication about the upper stage and its flight path.

Independent astronomers first identified the trajectory using publicly available data. NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which tracks natural objects that could pose hazards to Earth, later confirmed the stage has a 100% chance of impacting the Moon. NASA will continue tracking it as part of training operations.

Because the Moon has no atmosphere to slow incoming objects, it is struck by meteoroids daily. Human‑made object impacts are far less common but do occur. The rocket stage is expected to create a crater about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep and throw dust and rock outward as ejecta. For comparison, a meteoroid with the same energy as the upper stage hits the Moon about every six days, so the lunar surface is constantly absorbing impacts with the same force. Despite the disturbance, observing impacts gives scientists valuable insight by revealing how ejecta plumes behave, helping to understand the Moon's geology and refine models that guide future exploration and science missions.

The impact will not be visible to the naked eye on Earth, but NASA will attempt to observe it in real time. The Meteoroid Environments Office at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, will use ground‑based telescopes to image the impact; however, weather and lighting conditions may make viewing difficult.

Additionally, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the ShadowCam instrument aboard South Korea's Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter will look for chances to image the site before and after the impact. Image availability will depend on lighting, orbital timing, and spacecraft position, and it may take several days to receive imagery. Any data collected will help scientists better understand artificial impacts and their exploration implications.

Although unplanned in this instance, disposing of upper stages on the lunar surface is a technically accepted and safe method and, in some cases, can be the only practical option for missions in low lunar orbit. Many operators choose controlled impacts because they provide predictable and trackable end of life outcomes.

NASA is committed to debris mitigation and demonstrating responsible disposal practices that safeguard Earth, its orbital environment, and other planetary bodies while enabling discoveries that deepen our understanding of the solar system and benefit humanity.

posted 08-05-2026 02:28 PM               

...to measure sodium and lithium in a plume a few tens of kilometers in size that lasted five to 10 minutes after impact.

Dr. Schmidt said he was "100 percent confident" that the readings came from the impact.

However, it seems that no one was able to directly see or photograph the collision.

"I've so far only heard negatives from imaging folks," Mr. Lierle said.

The anticlimactic demise of the rocket stage was not a surprise.

Computer simulations calculated the effect of the rocket stage striking the moon in a vertical orientation, which would have produced the most debris, but the stage would more likely have belly-flopped at an angle instead. (The vertical case was the only one simple enough to be computed.)

posted 08-06-2026 09:46 AM               

On January 15, 2025, Falcon 9 successfully deployed Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 and ispace's RESILIENCE lunar landers on a trajectory to the Moon from pad 39A in Florida.

For most of our missions, we plan a controlled deorbit of the Falcon second stage so it safely reenters over the ocean. For higher energy missions like those to a lunar transfer orbit, nearly all performance on the vehicle is devoted to successfully placing the payload in the intended orbit, and a controlled disposal maneuver is not always possible.

We actively work to be as responsible as possible with hardware left in space to ensure space safety, including for more complex missions. In this case, over time, solar activity and gravity led the second stage toward the Moon. Impacts like this are rare, but they can happen with objects in these types of orbits, and we worked with NASA on the optimal disposal solution.

Our focus remains on advancing reliable access to space while working toward even more sustainable operations with Starship in the future. As a fully reusable vehicle, Starship is designed to eliminate expendable upper stages entirely, reducing hardware left in orbit and enabling even more missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

posted 08-19-2026 09:37 AM               

NASA's LRO Images Falcon 9 Crater on Moon, Learns New Details

Between Aug. 11 and 12, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured a series of images of a new crater on the Moon. The crater formed on Aug. 5, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage impacted the surface following its January 2025 launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission.

Above: This is an animated before-and-after view of the crater formed after a Falcon 9 upper stage struck the Moon's surface on Aug. 5, 2026. These images were taken between Aug. 11 and 12 by the Narrow-Angle Camera on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. These images are enlarged three times from the original, with north facing up, and they cover an area about a quarter of a mile wide. (NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines)

To capture imagery of the impact, engineers tilted the spacecraft so its cameras would point toward the crater each time LRO passed about 60 miles above the Moon, traveling 1 mile per second. The orbiter circles the Moon from pole to pole every two hours, while the Moon slowly rotates underneath it. To photograph a specific spot, the spacecraft must wait until that location turns into view, which took six days in this case.

Getting the pointing right was only half the challenge; timing had to be accurate as well. If the camera snapped even 10 seconds too early or too late, the target would drift off-center by 10 miles.

Because of the variety of viewing angles, scientists could see the crater under multiple lighting conditions that revealed unique features. In images where the crater rim stood out, scientists measured its 60‑foot width. Scientists also determined the crater is less than 10 feet deep based on the length of its shadow.

To capture these details, LRO used its Narrow-Angle Camera, which can spot features as small as 3 feet wide.

Above: Collected between Aug. 11 and 12 by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, six days after a Falcon 9 upper-stage booster impacted the Moon, these images were taken from different viewing angles, bringing out different features. The darker area that fans around the crater in the upper-left image is rougher than the surroundings, as this surface material has been altered over a long time by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. The brighter rays and splotch above the crater in the lower-right image is fresher material that was excavated from deeper below the surface. The pictures are arranged in the order they were taken, starting at the top left and moving toward the bottom right, with the lighting angle from the Sun gradually changing from one image to the next. Each image is enlarged two times and shows an area of the Moon about 1,000 feet wide. (NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines)

The images above show bright and dark rays stretching out from the crater. The darker streaks are made of surface dust and rocks altered over a long time by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. This weathered material was excavated by the collision from 1.5 feet into the lunar surface. The brighter streaks near the crater rim are made of fresh material excavated from deeper underground.

Above: This image from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows two oval regions where the Falcon 9 upper stage was likely to impact the Moon, based on calculations by engineers with NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies. Both ellipses are 2.1 miles long and 0.4 miles wide. Both predictions use the same booster-trajectory calculations, but only the blue ellipse takes into account the lunar terrain (vs. a smooth sphere). The red and blue dots show predicted impact locations, whereas the cyan dot shows the actual impact site. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Finding the impact site took global coordination among experts and hobbyists. Independent astronomers first identified the rocket's trajectory using publicly available data. NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks natural objects that could pose hazards to Earth for the agency's Planetary Defense program, used this opportunity to test and validate tools and techniques for predicting impacts.

Based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the center incrementally refined the trajectory until identifying the location of impact, which it provided to the Republic of Korea for their Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (Danuri) team. The team used the high-resolution LUTI camera on Danuri a few hours later to image the crater, finding the prediction was accurate to about 0.6 miles.

After capturing images of the crater, the Danuri mission sent coordinates to NASA's LRO team to help refine their follow-up imaging sequence. Comparing their new crater images with the pre-impact images, the LRO team updated the crater center coordinates: 19.4759°N, 266.7138°E, 511 meters elevation.