Spacex Rocket Fragment Set to Collide With Moon Next Week

WHO:

ABC News - Bill Gray, who runs Project Pluto and develops software for tracking astronomical objects.

ABC News - Benjamin Fernando, a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author of the study.

ABC News - Firefly Aerospace and ispace, companies involved in the lunar lander mission.

WHAT:

ABC News - A roughly five-ton piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to collide with the moon.

ABC News - The upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket will collide with the moon at approximately 5,400 miles per hour.

ABC News - The impact is expected to create a flash of light and a plume of ejecta, as well as excavate a fresh crater on the lunar surface.

ABC News - The Falcon 9 rocket was launched carrying Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience lunar landers.

WHERE:

ABC News - The collision will occur near the crater Einstein on the western lunar limb.

ABC News - The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

WHEN:

ABC News - The collision is scheduled for Aug. 5 at around 2:34 a.m. ET.

ABC News - The Falcon 9 rocket was launched on January 15, 2025.

ABC News - The Blue Ghost successfully landed on the moon on March 2, 2025.

WHY:

ABC News - The impact event provides a unique opportunity for scientists to study the risks of lunar impacts on people and equipment as NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon as early as 2028.

ABC News - The researchers aim to use the impact to better understand the makeup of the moon and to test techniques for studying natural impacts.

HOW:

ABC News - The impact will be used as a "calibration event" to test techniques for studying natural impacts.

ABC News - Scientists hope to measure the composition of the plume created by the impact to gain insights into the moon's composition.

(UPDATED July 30, 2026 22:28 UTC)

A five-ton piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to collide with the moon on August 5 at around 2:34 a.m. ET, impacting near the crater Einstein on the western lunar limb. This collision, traveling at approximately 5,400 miles per hour, is expected to create a flash of light, a plume of ejecta, and a new crater, providing scientists with a unique opportunity to study lunar impacts as NASA prepares to return astronauts to the moon by 2028. Researchers, including Bill Gray from Project Pluto and Benjamin Fernando from Los Alamos National Laboratory, aim to use this event to better understand the moon's composition and test techniques for studying natural impacts.