Piece of SpaceX rocket the size of a school bus crashes into the Moon

A four-tonne piece of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, roughly the size of a school bus, struck the Moon on Wednesday, according to tracking data. This debris, once the rocket's second stage, smashed into the lunar surface at an astonishing speed of 8,700 kilometres per hour, leaving behind a fresh crater. The impact force was equivalent to approximately three tonnes of TNT.

While most rocket components are designed to burn up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere, this particular piece was influenced by the gravitational forces of the Sun, Earth, and Moon, gradually altering its flight path over the past 18 months, ultimately leading to its collision with the Moon. SpaceX acknowledged that the accident was both unintentional and unavoidable given the rocket's remaining fuel reserves.

The collision was detected by various orbital observation craft, including NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea's Danuri spacecraft, who are now studying the ejected dust plume and will provide high-resolution before-and-after imagery of the newly formed crater. Experts, such as space tracking expert Bill Gray, have commented on the event, stating that while it doesn't pose an immediate danger, it does underscore the increasing clutter in space and the need for more responsible disposal of leftover space hardware.

This marks only the second known instance of a discarded rocket fragment accidentally crashing into the Moon, the first incident occurring in March 2022 when part of a Chinese Long March 3C rocket impacted the lunar far side, creating an unusual double crater.