By Joe Smith

 

FLORIDA, USA, 05 August. - (ANA) - Part of a rocket launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX has smashed into the Moon at around 5,400mph - about seven times the speed of sound.

 

The piece of the Falcon 9 upper stage was about the size of a five-storey building and had an Earth weight of around 4,000kg.

 

Scientists say the rocket will now have crashed into the Moon. The crash will be confirmed by telescopes in the Americas monitoring the event soon.

 

The moment of impact was not captured by any of the spacecraft orbiting the moon, so scientists will now be analysing before and after snaps of the surface searching for the new crater left by the impact. Analysis of images may take a few days, researchers have said.

 

The now-abandoned spacecraft formed part of a US-Japanese mission launched by SpaceX in January 2025 which took two lunar landers to the Moon.

 

The dust and debris from the impact is expected to rise several miles above the Moon's surface and should be visible through telescopes from Earth.

 

Astronomer Bill Gray said of the collision: "Maybe we'll see the flash. Maybe we'll see rocks ejected from the crater. Maybe we'll even see both."

 

Observers in the eastern US and Canada, along with much of South America, are expected to have the best chance of spotting the impact flash of the crash itself.

 

This will be the second space ship to crash into the Moon - in 2022 a Chinese rocket segment dug out two craters on the Moon's far side.

 

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Benjamin Fernando told reporters: “Part of the reason for our interest in this event is to figure out how much of a hazard debris impacts pose to future astronauts."

 

Fernando expects the impact to create a crater about 90ft across and 16ft deep - too small to be seen from Earth but visible to spacecraft.

 

Retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said "this impact will not be a problem", but warned that similar impacts "would be an issue", particularly "in a future where there are long-term bases on the Moon".

 

"We need not to leave rocket stages in chaotic orbits of this kind," he added.  - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/05 August 2026 - - -