SpaceX Rocket the Size of a School Bus Expected to Have Crashed Into the Moon, Likely Leaving Massive Crater

Part of a SpaceX rocket the size of a school bus that’s traveling at more than 5,000 miles per hour was on a collision course with the moon, where it was expected to crash early Wednesday morning.

Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA Science and Dragon Programs at SpaceX, said at a press conference this week that the upper stage of the rocket was still in space, with the first stage — a booster used for liftoff — returning to Earth.

The crash on the moon was expected early Wednesday morning, but any impact could take hours to confirm.

“For high-energy missions, we need to perform a different maneuver to ensure the second stage itself is safe per the appropriate rules and regulations,” Scheiman said. “We did that here for the Ispace and Blue Ghost missions’ second stage, and what has happened is essentially a mixture of solar activity and gravity forces have put it on a path towards the moon.”

The crash will reportedly not pose a danger to Earth, but it could leave a crater in the moon with a diameter of 65 to 90 feet (20 to 30 meters). SpaceX is headed by billionaire Elon Musk.

A study from researchers, including from NASA, reads:

The impact flash and resultant ejecta plume from this event are potentially observable from ground- and space-based observational facilities. This event provides an opportunity to attempt the recording of an artificial impact in real-time; although many of the properties of the event (such as visual magnitude) are imprecisely predicted at present. Moreover, this event provides an opportunity to test a pipeline for localising impacts on the lunar surface for future seismic experiments, investigating the dust and plume dynamics from impact events on the Moon, and considering hazards from artificial space debris impacts. Both professional and amateur astronomers are encouraged to attempt observations of this event.

The Falcon 9 was launched in January 2025, carrying a lunar lander to the moon. The launch is part of an overall mission to set up a permanent base on the moon.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Fox News on Wednesday that the crash is “not a big deal right now,” but the moon has “clearly seen better days.”

“First, it’s very infrequent to have things like the Falcon 9 second stage crash into the moon,” he said. “Second, it’s not a big deal right now. The moon has clearly seen better days, but once you have reusable upper stages like Starship is doing, you’re not going to be throwing them away, you’re going to be landing them on the moon and they’re going to contribute the city block that you’re trying to build on the lunar surface.”

Watch above via CNN.

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