Has a SpaceX rocket that was drifting impacted the Moon?

A piece of a SpaceX rocket that had been floating in space since last year has theoretically crashed into the Moon this Wednesday morning. The impact, which would have been at high speed, was expected to occur at 2:35 AM in the United States – 8:30 AM in Catalonia – but it will take several hours for scientists to confirm it.

The space object is debris from a lunar mission from January 2025 and, according to SpaceX, Elon Musk's company, natural cosmic forces pushed the rocket's remains towards a lunar impact trajectory. The company maintains that it is an accidental case. The rocket is the size of a bus and is the second stage – the second part – of a Falcon 9 that was part of a mission to transport modules and scientific equipment to the Moon. Although part of the artifact is designed to return to Earth, some parts detach in space and remain in orbit unless they collide with a celestial body.

NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies concluded that this space debris was heading to the Moon after independent astronomers noticed it through public data.

With a weight of 4 metric tons (4,000 kg), the object's body was to impact the Moon at 8,690 km/h, but none of the spacecraft orbiting the Moon were expected to be in a position to capture live images of the impact. The debris would have generated a plume of lunar dust, probably illuminated by sunlight, but very difficult to see with the naked eye from Earth.

The problem is that it takes hours before scientists can confirm the accident by studying telescope images. In principle, the rocket fragment impacted the Einstein crater, on the western edge of the Moon, which is often difficult to see from Earth. NASA will track the booster with "training objectives" and also the impact site, according to its spokesperson, Jimi Russell.