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On August 5, 2026, at approximately 1205 IST, a massive crater has probably been created on the lunar surface for the first time in history due to a non-natural impact. The impact was caused by the spent second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched in January 2025, which is known to have eventually collided with the Moon.

The spent rocket stage was travelling through space at an estimated speed of 8,690 km/h and is believed to have struck the lunar surface at an approximate velocity of Mach 7, about seven times the speed of sound. Impact is expected to have happened near the Moon’s Einstein Crater with a force equivalent to roughly three tonnes of trinitrotoluene (TNT). This unique event offers an opportunity to examine its scientific, technological, legal and policy implications from multiple perspectives.

Scientists and space agencies like NASA have confirmed that a discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 upper-stage rocket has already crashed into the Moon as estimated. This inference is based on conclusions drawn by tracking data and undertaking trajectory calculations. However, definitive visual photo confirmation of the fresh crater is yet come essentially none of the satellites revolving around the Moon were favourably placed at the time of impact to take photographs.

As per NASA, the impact could have created a crater about 60 ft (18 metres) wide and 12ft (four metres) deep and must have thrown raised dust and rock outward as ejecta, possibly reaching 100 km above the lunar surface. Some scientists estimate the diameter of crater to be about 30 meters. 

Since no spacecraft orbiting the Moon was in a position to directly observe this impact, scientists have had to rely on post-impact analysis to confirm the event. South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter came closest to observing the event, having passed near the impact site shortly before the collision.

However, its mission team has indicated that any images or observations will only be released after detailed analysis by the relevant research institutes. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is expected to photograph the impact site during its subsequent orbital passes, providing the most definitive evidence of the newly created crater.

Some ground-based observatories in the US, where it was still nighttime during the impact, were well positioned to detect the brief impact flash and the resulting dust plume. Nevertheless, processing and validating these observations requires considerable time and astronomers would be required to carefully analyse and verify the data before releasing confirmed........

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