According to TIME, the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is on an unintended path to impact the lunar surface on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, at 2:35 a.m. ET. The 45-ft. hardware will conclude a 19-month journey, marking another addition to the debris accumulated on the moon since the Soviet Union’s Luna 2 mission in 1959.

The 230-ft. Falcon 9 rocket originally launched from Kennedy Space Center’s launch complex 39A on Jan. 15, 2025. It carried two lunar landers: the Blue Ghost, developed by Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, and the Resilience, created by Japan’s ispace. While the Blue Ghost successfully touched down on the moon on March 2, 2025, the Resilience lander suffered a crash landing on June 5, 2025, due to a malfunction in its laser range-finder. Following the deployment of these landers, the rocket’s second stage remained in space rather than undergoing a planned atmospheric reentry.

Astronomer Bill Gray, who manages the Project Pluto website, identified the impending collision on April 29, 2026. Using software designed to track objects not monitored by the U.S. military, Gray determined the booster is expected to hit near the Einstein Crater at the far western lunar horizon.

Mission Logistics and Flight Data

Why It Matters

This event highlights the increasing accumulation of high-altitude space debris and the limitations of current tracking systems for objects in deep-space orbits. While orbital decay near Earth is well-monitored, objects trapped in complex gravitational interactions between Earth and the moon often fall outside the mandate of traditional regulatory bodies like the FAA or U.S. Space Command. As private spaceflight frequency scales, the industry requires more standardized disposal protocols to mitigate environmental impacts on the moon’s surface and ensure the sustainability of future lunar traffic.