https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/04/a-falcon-9-upper-stage-will-strike-the-moon-in-august/
this object is the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that launched two lunar landers, Firefly’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Hakuto-R, on January 15, 2025. After the launch, the two landers, a payload fairing, and the upper stage were all tracked following their separation. The two landers reached the Moon (only Blue Ghost successfully touched down), and the fairing reentered Earth’s atmosphere.
It’s common for discarded rocket stages, that launched payloads to the moon, later crash into the moon. Usually weeks or months after the payload lands or crashes into the moon.
NASA (along with multiple other space agencies from Russia, China, India, UAE, Israel, Japan, and others) have crashed dozens of rocket stages and other things into the moon since the 1960s.
Markus1 I think this pretty troubling. Musk lost control of space junk and now that garbage is polluting the lunar environment. There should be ways for him to be fined for this. It just as well could have hit the earth or another planet or crashed into an important satellite. This is no responsible way to act.
Wanting to fine just Musk seems odd wuts, especially when the Japanese Hakuto-R probe the SpaceX rocket stage launched also crashed into the moon. His company SpaceX is trying to make the first fully reusable rocket, that won’t leave stages behind to randomly hit things like all the rockets launched before. Maybe fine all the companies crashing stuff onto the moon after a certain date, but not vindictively just one person you don’t like. Would you fine NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine for NASA crashing the 2019 LCROSS mission rocket stage into the moon?
