(VIDEO) SpaceX Falcon 9 Upper Stage Set to Smash Into Moon August 5 at 5,400 MPH |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A discarded upper stage from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is hurtling toward a high-speed collision with the Moon on August 5, 2026, marking another chapter in the growing problem of human-made space debris beyond Earth orbit.
Independent astronomer Bill Gray, creator of Project Pluto software widely used for tracking near-Earth objects, has pinpointed the impact for approximately 2:44 a.m. EDT (06:44 UTC). The roughly 45-foot-long (13.8-meter) cylindrical stage, designated 2025-010D, will strike the lunar surface near the rim of Einstein crater at about 5,400 miles per hour — roughly seven times the speed of sound on Earth.
The object originated from a Falcon 9 launch on January 15, 2025, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. That mission carried two commercial lunar landers under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which successfully landed in Mare Crisium in March 2025, and ispace's Resilience, which unfortunately crashed during its descent. After deploying its payloads, the upper stage was left in a high, unstable orbit around the Earth-Moon system rather than being deorbited or directed into a safe disposal trajectory.
Gray's detailed orbital analysis, updated through April 2026 observations, shows the stage has been drifting for more than 18 months. Without an atmosphere to slow it down, the Moon presents an unyielding target. The impact is expected on the near side, close to the western limb as viewed from Earth, during a waning gibbous phase when the Moon is about 58% illuminated.
At the moment of collision, the stage —........