According to The Guardian, a four‑tonne section of a discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket struck the lunar surface on Wednesday at about 5,400 miles per hour. The impact, which poses no threat to Earth, is expected to create a new crater on the Moon.
The piece, roughly the size of a building, had been drifting in orbit since the Falcon 9 booster was used to launch a Firefly Aerospace lunar lander in January 2025. NASA plans to observe the impact, while Al Jazeera reports the fragment is comparable in size to a school bus. The collision was unintentional and will not affect any Earth‑bound missions.
This event highlights the growing issue of space debris and the potential for unexpected collisions with celestial bodies, providing a rare opportunity to study crater formation on the Moon.