Astronomy and Space

2026 SpaceX lunar impact

The spent upper stage (COSPAR ID 2025-010D) of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket collided with the Moon near Einstein Crater on 5 August 2026. The 3,900-kilogram (8,600 lb) spacecraft had been abandoned the previous year in a Moon-crossing high Earth orbit after delivering two lunar landers: Blue Ghost-1 and Hakuto-R Mission 2. The crash, which was not planned, is humanity's third known (or presumed) unintentional lunar impact of a rocket body, after the third stage that delivered Luna 2 in 1959 and the upper stage of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program's Chang'e 5-T1 mission on the far side of the Moon in 2022. This crash posed no danger to satellites and other space assets, but renewed attention to space law about space junk and space archaeology and to the larger context of the Second Space Race.

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See also

• ▸Kosmos 60
• ▸Elizabeth Blackadder
• ▸Journey of Apollo 15 to the Moon

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