Overview
- A roughly 12‑meter, four‑ton Falcon 9 upper stage struck the Moon on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, producing a fresh crater and an ejecta cloud.
- South Korea's Danuri orbiter captured before-and-after images that show a darker surface and disturbed terrain at the impact site.
- ESO's Very Large Telescope recorded a transient impact plume with strong sodium lines and a tentative lithium signal that may come from rocket components.
- SpaceX acknowledged the upper stage drifted onto a lunar-collision course after its January 2025 launch rather than being intentionally directed to the Moon.
- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled to overfly the site in the coming days to map the crater at high resolution and help assess risks to future lunar missions and surface assets.