A discarded SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon on Wednesday. The rocket's upper stage was 40 feet long and weighed 10,000 pounds. It hit the moon at 5,400 miles per hour, seven times faster than sound. The crash happened early in the morning near Einstein Crater on the moon's western side and created a cratercrater/ˈkreɪtər/L2陨石坑a large hole in the ground or on the surface of a planet or moon, made by something hitting it about 90 feet wide. In addition, the impact had the energy of three tons of TNT.
The rocket's upper stage drifted in space for over a year after launching the two moon landers. It launched two private moon landers in January 2025. One lander, Firefly's Blue Ghost, succeeded in a fully successful touchdown, but the other lander from Japan crashed. Space tracker Bill Gray observed the impact from New Brunswick, Canada, and said, "Things are getting crowded up there." Scientists watched closely to learn how debris impacts pose a hazardhazard/ˈhæzərd/L2危险；危害something that could cause danger or harm to future astronauts.
This crash was not a big problem for Earth. However, it highlights the growing threat of space junk. As space gets more crowded, the risk of collisions increases. Future astronauts who travel to the moon will face dangers from similar accidental impacts. If scientists improve debrisdebris/dəˈbriː/L2碎片；残骸the pieces of something that are broken or destroyed tracking, they will better protect future space missions. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea's Danuri orbiterorbiter/ˈɔːrbɪtər/L2轨道飞行器；轨道器a spacecraft that moves around a planet or moon in space will take before-and-after pictures of the crash area to study the effects.
