No Direct Images, But Scientists Say Telescope Evidence Confirms SpaceX Rocket Hit The Moon

Hyderabad: The upper stage of a discarded SpaceX rocket was supposed to crash into the Moon unintentionally on Wednesday, at approximately 12:05 PM IST (0635 GMT). The collision was not expected to be visible to the naked eye from Earth, but even people using telescopes struggled to observe the impact.

As the Falcon 9 upper stage raced towards the lunar surface at around 8,700 kmph—about seven times the speed of sound—near Einstein Crater on the Moon's sunlit western limb, scientists and amateur stargazers awaited in tow. Given the timing of the impact, observers in the eastern United States, eastern Canada, and much of South America were likely to have the best viewing opportunities.

However, no one could spot the plume of ejecta, possibly because the impact site is near the visible edge of the Moon. Enthusiasts even took to social media to share their frustration about not being able to witness the event.

Finally, a telescope in Chile spotted what astronomers have identified as the debris plume resulting from the crash.

Boston University's Carl Schmidt said he is "100% certain" that his team's observations captured evidence of the lunar impact. According to Schmidt, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope detected a plume of sodium and lithium extending for tens of kilometres into space, which remained visible for five to 10 minutes after the crash.

"We don't have images of the impact," Schmidt said, "but we do have telescope evidence."

Space tracking experts never doubted the leftover rocket segment's crash into the Moon. Even before signs of the debris plume were spotted by the telescope in Chile, retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that observations of the dead 4-ton upper stage on Tuesday night showed it heading straight for the Moon.

The rocket was expected to crash into a dusty, barren region near Einstein Crater on the Moon's sunlit western limb, close to the boundary between its near and far sides — an area that is particularly difficult to observe from Earth.

“There's no doubt in my mind" that the rocket “is now in teeny, little pieces scattered over the moon near Einstein Crater,” McDowell said. “As a physicist, I know that what goes up must come down.”

How a stray SpaceX rocket aimed for the Moon

This SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched on January 15, 2025, and successfully deployed Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander to the Moon under NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. While the booster returned to Earth, solar activity and gravitational forces caused the upper stage’s unplanned return to the Moon.

The space agency said that it remained in communication with SpaceX about the upper stage and its flight path. Independent astronomers first identified the rocket's trajectory using publicly available data, and NASA later confirmed it has a 100 per cent chance of impacting the Moon.

NASA said that, although unplanned in this instance, disposing of upper stages on the lunar surface is a technically accepted and safe method and, in some cases, the only practical option for missions in low lunar orbit. It added that many operators choose controlled impacts because they provide predictable and trackable end-of-life outcomes.

NASA had confirmed that the impact was harmless, and it was tracking the rocket for training purposes. It was also waiting to "observe the impact site for scientific purposes" using ground-based telescopes at its Marshall Space Flight Centre. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the ShadowCam aboard South Korea's Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter were also supposed to image the impact site before and after the collision. Any data collected could help scientists better understand artificial impacts and their implications for future lunar exploration, NASA had said.

A team of researchers had encouraged both professional and amateur astronomers to attempt viewing or recording the collision. "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," they said.

Retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell also believed the impact to be harmless but raised caution for the future. "This impact will not be a problem," he said. "But in a future where there are long-term bases on the moon, similar impacts would be an issue, and we need not leave rocket stages in chaotic orbits of this kind."

NASA hopes to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon through its Artemis programme, which makes it important to better understand space debris in lunar orbit. While the Moon is routinely struck by meteoroids, artificial impacts are far less common. In the 1970s, the US space agency deliberately crashed spacecraft into the lunar surface during the Apollo programme to collect seismic data.

(The story has been updated twice after the SpaceX rocket impact, with inputs from AP and AFP)