It was determined that the approximately 4-ton Falcon 9 upper stage belonging to SpaceX hit the Moon after drifting in space for more than a year. The collision, which occurred at a speed of approximately 2.4 kilometers per second, could not be viewed directly, but traces of sodium and lithium rising from the Moon into space were detected with the telescope.
The upper stage of the Falcon 9, which sent two special landing vehicles to the Moon on January 15, 2025, remained in space uncontrolled after completing its mission. Gravitational forces and the effect of the Sun's activity eventually put the rocket piece, more than 12 meters long, on a collision course with the Moon.
Calculations of space tracking experts showed that the piece would reach the Moon on August 5 at a speed of approximately 8,700 kilometers. Observations made after the expected time also indicated that the collision had occurred.
NO COLLISION WAS OBSERVED
The moment of impact or the resulting flash of light on the lunar surface could not be directly viewed by any telescope. In contrast, the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile detected a cloud of material spreading into space immediately after the collision.
Astronomer Carl Schmidt from Boston University explained that this flow of sodium and lithium extends for tens of kilometers and can be observed for 5 to 10 minutes.
In his statement to the Associated Press, Schmidt said that he was "100 percent sure" that the traces his team detected were formed as a result of the rocket hitting the Moon.
Retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell also stated that orbital observations made the night before the collision showed that the rocket part was heading directly towards the Moon.
The estimated impact point is located around Einstein Crater, near the boundary between the visible and invisible sides of the Moon from Earth. The fact that this region, which receives sunlight, is located on the edge of the Moon, making observations from Earth very difficult.
IT WAS DRAGGED FOR A YEAR
The Falcon 9 rocket took the Blue Ghost developed by Firefly Aerospace and the Resilience lander of the Japanese ispace company to the Moon.
Blue Ghost managed to land on the Moon in an upright and stable manner in March 2025, completing the first fully successful commercial Moon landing by the private sector. Resilience crashed to the Moon's surface during its landing attempt in June 2025.
Having placed the two vehicles on their planned routes, Falcon 9 ran out of fuel in its upper stage to guide it into a safe orbit or into the Earth's atmosphere. As a result, the fragment moved uncontrollably in the region between the Earth and the Moon for more than a year.
Julianna Scheiman, one of SpaceX executives, emphasized that the collision was not a planned operation. Stating that the company is working with NASA to prevent similar events from recurring, Scheiman stated that gravitational forces and solar activity played a role in the rocket's direction to the Moon.
CRATER WILL BE SEARCHED
Definitive visual evidence of the collision is expected to come from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter orbiting the Moon. It is stated that the spacecraft will be able to pass over the region in the coming days and view the newly formed crater.
Since the Moon has no atmosphere, the rocket part did not burn and disintegrate before reaching the surface. It is estimated that the upper stage, weighing approximately 4 tons, hit the surface at high speed, creating a new crater and scattering Moon dust over a wide area.
The incident also brought the issue of space debris around the Moon to the agenda again. In 2022, another rocket part, determined to belong to China, hit the Moon uncontrollably. It is thought that many more pieces that could not be tracked in previous years may have reached the surface in a similar way.
For now, such collisions do not pose a direct danger to human activities on the Moon. However, traffic around the Moon is expected to increase rapidly due to NASA's Artemis program, China's manned Moon plans, and private companies' commercial missions.
According to experts, uncontrolled rocket parts hitting the Moon surface in the future; It may cause damage to operating vehicles, scientific experiments and bases planned to be established. For this reason, the safe removal of rocket stages that have completed their mission will become one of the important planning topics of new Moon missions.
