Jennifer Millard
Astronomer, Fifth Star Labs

This collision is a bit of a red flag for what's going on up there.

We're at the dawn of the second space age, and in a few years’ time the idea for astronauts is to go back to the Moon and stay.

It's not these little few-day jollies that we had in the days of Apollo. We're talking about missions that will last weeks, and eventually months.

So imagine that, then imagine if there was an out-of-control rocket body which we can't change where it's going to land.

Imagine if that was to hit a crewed lunar base, or if it was to hit somewhere historical, like one of the Apollo sites, or maybe some sensitive equipment, or if the blast zone damaged some scientific equipment or habitation pod.

Space X describes the Falcon 9 rocket as a "reusable, two-stage rocket" and the lower part of the rocket can be returned to Earth to be used again after launch.

But other parts of the rocket are shed in space and remain there, stuck in orbit, unless they collide with another celestial body.

SpaceX launched this specific Falcon 9 rocket as part of a US and Japanese mission to carry a pair of lunar landers and scientific equipment to the Moon last year.

The upper stage of the rocket is about the size of a five-storey building, with a mass on Earth of at least 4,000kg (8,800 lbs).

The Space X rocket is believed to have crashed into the Moon close to the Einstein Crater, on the part of the Moon that receives daylight and is visible from Earth.

The crash site is on the other side of the Moon from the famous Apollo 11 landing site, where Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin first walked on the Moon.

Rodrigo Palominos, a telescope operator at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, says earlier this morning there was an impact of the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket.

He tells Radio 4's Today programme that at the predicted time of impact, he detected a change in some emission lines - bright lines of light - which were not present before.

Palominos say it's an "encouraging preliminary result" which may indicate material released by the collision.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, Space X's Falcon 9 rocket is a reusable model and has been used for several space missions.

When it takes off, the rocket separates, and the bottom section that boosts it returns to earth.

The debris that has been heading towards the moon is the upper part and came from a Falcon 9 launch in January 2025.

On 10 August, the Falcon 9 booster section from the January 2025 mission is hoping to launch 29 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.

It will set off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking the 18th flight for this specific Falcon 9 rocket.

Earlier today, we saw a separate Falcon 9 launch in the BlueBird 11-13 mission.

Processing images of this cosmic crash will likely take some timepublished at 09:55 BST

09:55 BST

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

The impact happened in broad daylight as seen from many parts of the world, and the tiny flash produced would have been far too faint to see, even through a telescope.

Amateur astronomers observing in darkness elsewhere also had little realistic chance of spotting it, given the flash lasts only a fraction of a second.

They may, however, have caught sight of the plume of dust thrown up by the crash, which could have risen as high as 100 km and lasted for several minutes.

Even spacecraft orbiting the Moon were not in the right place to witness the impact live, though they will take images of the aftermath, comparing pictures of the surface from before and after the crash, to spot the new scar.

The clearest science, and probably the first usable images, are expected to come from powerful telescopes on the ground in the Americas, where the sky was still dark.

However, turning the detection of a 14-metre rocket part hitting the lunar surface 385,000 km away into a clear picture will take time, with processing potentially running from hours to weeks.

Image source, Reuters

A stray piece of a SpaceX rocket hurtling towards the Moon is thought to have made impact.

If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:

• The crash, which was due to occur around 07:35 BST, will be confirmed by specialist telescopes monitoring the event

• We're still awaiting images - with a delay because none of the spacecraft orbiting the Moon were positioned to capture it live
• The first job for scientists is to compare before-and-after pictures of the Moon's surface to spot the new scar - a process which takes time to plan and execute, writes our science correspondent

• Nasa says the collision poses "no danger to Earth", with experts calling this an opportunity to "collect lunar data from the event and refine techniques for tracking objects in space"

• But there are some concerns over space debris and how that might impact future missions - with today's collision meaning the Moon now has roughly 3,000 human-made objects, weighing around 190 tonnes combined

Stick with us for further updates on the collision and its impact.

Image source, Space X

SpaceX has just launched a Falcon 9 rocket in a separate mission from its site in Florida.

The mission, called BlueBird 11-13, is launching three satellites into orbit.

Space X says in a statement on its website that this will be the 30th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission.

As we've been reporting, the Falcon 9 was launched last year, with part of the rocket being reusable and designed to return back to Earth for its next mission.

We're still waiting for images of another Falcon 9 rocket which is thought to have made impact with the Moon earlier this morning.

While the crash would not have been visible to the naked eye, people with access to a sophisticated telescope may be able to see a flash radiating off the Moon's surface.

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Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Today's crash means the Moon now has roughly 3,000 human-made objects, weighing around 190 tonnes combined.

These have built up since the Soviet Union's Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in September 1959.

NASA's own tally lists 796 items from its Moon programme alone, mostly left behind by the six Apollo missions; the wider 3,000 figure emerges once you add every other nation and company's hardware too, from Soviet and Chinese landers to crashed rocket stages like today's.

Unlike pollution on Earth, this debris poses no threat to an ecosystem, since the Moon has no atmosphere or biosphere to damage.

But scientists are concerned about a few other things.

Image source, Adam Borucki

One is protecting historic sites, such as the Apollo landing zones, from being disturbed or damaged as more missions arrive.

The other is preserving areas valued precisely because they're untouched, since undisturbed lunar soil holds billions of years of geological history that scientists want to study before it's scattered by debris.

The more pressing worry, raised by Nasa and SpaceX this week, is collision risk to future missions, as landings and orbital traffic around the Moon are set to rise sharply over the next decade.

The "big pay off" from the SpaceX rocket crashing into the Moon will come in around a week's time, according to an astronomer.

Dr Matt Bothwell, astronomer at the University of Cambridge, tells BBC Breakfast this is when a lunar orbital satellite will pass the crash site and scientists will be able to create before and after pictures of the crater.

Bothwell adds that the collision is a "nice little neat experiment on the Moon", but warns that space is becoming more crowded with space debris - human-made objects in orbit around the Earth.

"It could feasibly be within a few decades hard to get past Earth's orbit because space is so crowded. It's called space debris and we should absolutely worry about it," he says.

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

None of the spacecraft orbiting the Moon were positioned to capture the collision live, so the first job for scientists is simply comparing before-and-after pictures of the surface to spot the new scar, a process that itself takes time to plan and execute.

South Korea's Danuri orbiter had the best chance of catching something close to real time, having passed near the impact site shortly beforehand, but its team has told Korean news outlets that any footage will only be released once analysis by research institutes is complete, with no fixed date given.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be in position to photograph the site over the coming days.

Meanwhile, ground telescopes in the Americas, where it was still dark, had the best shot at catching the brief flash and dust plume, but turning raw detections into confirmed, cleaned-up images typically takes hours, and sometimes days, as scientists check the data for accuracy.

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

According to the scientists studying this impact, the SpaceX rocket should by now have crashed into the Moon.

The crash will be confirmed by telescopes in the Americas monitoring the event.

We'll bring you more on the collision as we get it.

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

SpaceX's Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured for, what the company calls "the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond".

This specific rocket was launched as part of a US and Japanese mission to carry a pair of lunar landers and scientific equipment to the Moon last year.

Part of the Falcon 9 is reusable and designed to return back to Earth for its next mission. But some parts of the rocket are shed in space and remain there, stuck in orbit unless they eventually collide with another celestial body.

According to Nasa's Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the upper stage (section) of one of rockets will "impact" the Moon.

The US space agency reached the conclusion after independent astronomers, using public data, noted that a portion of the rocket from a January 2025 launch was on an accidental collision course with the Moon.

The piece in question is about the size of a five-storey building, with a mass of at least 4,000kg.

Image source, Reuters

The SpaceX object will land near the Einstein crater, which is on the part of the Moon that receives daylight and is visible from Earth, according to astronomer Bill Gray.

But experts say ordinary eyes on Earth will not be able to see the impact itself.

Instead, people with access to a sophisticated telescope may be able to see a flash radiating off the Moon's surface.

Big telescopes in the Americas, plus Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea's Danuri probe, will track the flash, plume and new crater, and a citizen‑science project is signing up keen amateurs to film the impact too.

By catching the dust plume in action, astronomers hope to turn this accidental crash into a useful experiment.

The fact we know this is happening, ahead of time, is exciting for scientistspublished at 07:11 BST

07:11 BST

Libby Jackson
Head of space at the Science Museum

This collision is exciting for scientists, because we know it's happening, and we know the speed and the mass of the rocket stage that will crash into the Moon.

We don't normally know that for meteors that crash into the Moon every day.

That means scientists will have a lot more information as they study the debris that will be caused by the collision.

By studying the light that is reflected from that material, scientists can determine its composition - helping them understand how the Moon has developed and how planetary systems evolved and were formed billions of years ago.

The collision between the Moon and a drifting SpaceX rocket is not thought to be dangerous, including to Earth, according to experts.

Nasa spokesperson Jimi Russell says while Nasa will continue to observe the site of impact for scientific purposes, "there is no danger to Earth".

Nasa scientists are planning to collect lunar data from the event and refine techniques for tracking objects in space.

"It's something really huge smashing into the Moon. It's not remotely dangerous, we can just watch the show," says Dr Matt Bothwell, public astronomer at the University of Cambridge.

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

The story began in January last year, when a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida carrying two lunar landers into space.

The rocket's job was to fire its upper stage hard enough to send both landers out of Earth orbit and onto a path towards the Moon, and it succeeded.

But the spent stage was left drifting in a long, looping orbit that swung it out towards the Moon and back again.

Over the following 18 months, the gentle gravitational tug of the Earth, Moon and Sun - along with even the faint push of sunlight itself - gradually altered its path.

Astronomers tracking the object eventually worked out that those small nudges had put it on a course toward the Moon, picking up speed by the day and heading for an almighty crash.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

A stray piece of a SpaceX rocket that has been hurtling in orbit at around 2.43 kilometres per second (about 5,400mph) is expected to collide with the Moon.

It's the 4,000kg upper section of a Falcon 9 spacecraft, about the size of a five-storey building.

The collision, according to US space agency Nasa, is predicted to happen at about 07:35 BST.

Experts say it will not be visible from Earth with the naked eye, but people with access to a sophisticated telescope may be able to see a flash radiating off the Moon's surface.

It is also not thought to be dangerous - including to Earth - with scientists instead considering this to be a unique opportunity to study what happens when an object hits the Moon.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest updates and expert analysis on what this all means.