SpaceX rocket stage likely crashes on Moon near Einstein Crater

A wayward SpaceX rocket stage is believed to have smashed into the Moon near Einstein Crater after drifting for a year. The incident sharpens concern over lunar debris as missions by the US and China gather pace.Stock photo used for illustrationA SpaceX rocket stage that launched two private lunar landers is believed to have crashed into the Moon on Wednesday after drifting off course for the past year, according to scientists tracking it. While official confirmation was still awaited, space tracking experts said the impact was inevitable.The incident is the latest example of debris reaching the lunar surface at a time when activity around the Moon is expected to rise sharply. Scientists have warned that such impacts could become a bigger problem as the United States and China push ahead with plans to send astronauts there.Retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said observations of the dead 4-ton upper stage on Tuesday night showed it heading straight for the Moon. The expected impact site was a dusty, barren area near Einstein Crater on the Moon’s sunlit western limb, close to the boundary of the near and far sides, which is especially difficult to observe from Earth.“There’s no doubt in my mind” that the rocket “is now in teeny, little pieces scattered over the moon near Einstein Crater,” McDowell said. “As a physicist, I know that what goes up must come down,” he added. McDowell said that even in the unlikely event of an asteroid hitting the rocket during its final approach, the debris would still have struck the Moon in the same area. “It’s very hard to imagine ... that will put it on a very different course,” he said.Scientists and skywatchers had expected it would be difficult, if not impossible, to spot from the ground any plume of dust and rock thrown up by the impact, or even the flash of light from the collision. Spacecraft in orbit around the Moon had the best chance of seeing anything, or at least photographing the crater later. Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek was among those who pointed telescopes at the Moon at the expected time of impact, but he saw nothing. “We knew this would be a long shot,” Langbroek said. Like McDowell, he said he had “no doubt” the rocket had met its end.Visual confirmation is expected only after NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flies over the site and sends back images of the crater. NASA does not expect that to happen until next week.SpaceX’s Julianna Scheiman said this week that the company is working with NASA to avoid similar incidents in future and stressed that the crash was not deliberate. She said a combination of solar activity and gravity had accidentally put the rocket stage on a collision course with the Moon.The Falcon rocket’s upper stage, a cylinder more than 40 feet long, launched from Cape Canaveral on January 15, 2025, carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience towards the Moon. After releasing the two landers, it was left adrift. Resilience later crashed, while Blue Ghost made a successful landing, becoming the first private spacecraft to do so.The impact also adds to concern over growing lunar litter. In 2022, a Chinese rocket unintentionally struck the Moon after a lunar mission, and scientists believe many other stray rocket parts may have hit the lunar surface in earlier decades without being noticed.The Moon is increasingly becoming a major destination for space missions, with NASA planning a wave of robotic flights in the coming years to help build the foundation for a sustainable lunar base. SpaceX and Blue Origin are due to provide lunar landers for NASA’s Artemis astronauts. Elon Musk’s Starship is continuing test flights from Texas, while Jeff Bezos’ Blue Moon lander has not yet launched. One or both are expected to take part in next year’s Artemis III, a docking rehearsal in orbit around Earth, with a crewed lunar landing potentially following as early as 2028.Summing up the broader concern, McDowell said, “Things are going to get a lot busier near the moon.” He added that in future, “an impact like this on the lunar surface plowing up huge amounts of dust going for hundreds of miles around is not going to be acceptable.”With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 5, 2026 22:08 IST