A part of a SpaceX rocket has crashed into the Moon, forming a new crater. The object that hit the lunar surface was a spent upper stage of a rocket from Elon Musk's SpaceX.
The impact occurred in the rugged area located between the Einstein and Bell craters, on the western edge of the visible Moon. Amateur and professional astronomers directed telescopes toward the impact site, but no obvious signs of the collision were found.
Weight of the SpaceX rocket stage that hit the Moon
The rocket stage was 12 meters long and arrived at a speed of 8,700 kilometers per hour.
Satellite imagery and disposal regulations
Images from orbiting satellites regarding the SpaceX Moon crash are expected to arrive in the coming hours or days. SpaceX stated that they followed the applicable rules during the disposal of the rocket stage.
In 2023, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed five permissible ways to dispose of spent upper stages. This incident occurs within a broader context of space debris management, as the European Space Agency (ESA) counts over 54,000 pieces of debris larger than ten centimeters and estimates more than 140 million pieces smaller than one centimeter.
