- During the SpaceX rocket’s launch, which carried private payloads, the spacecraft’s trajectory was disrupted, and it crashed into the Moon.
- Experts noted that the crash was not necessarily related to the mission’s official failure, and that the official statement at the time of the publication was not.
- NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter detected evidence of the crash of the spacecraft into the Moon.
After the launch of the SpaceX rocket, which was intended to deliver private payloads, the spacecraft’s trajectory was disrupted and it crashed into the Moon.
In one of the reports, the crash was described as follows: the rocket’s impact area was the Moon’s surface. The official statement about the crash at the time of publication was not.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomy expert, said that the crash was likely caused by a failure of the rocket’s trajectory. He added that the impact produced a crater.
In a statement, Julianna Scheiman said that SpaceX had reported that the company was working with NASA on the investigation. She said that the company had not provided details about the cause of the failure.
Retired astronomer Jonathan McDowell said that the crash produced a crater with a mass of 4 tonnes, which he estimated was caused by the rocket’s impact on the Moon. He said the crater was likely Einstein Crater.
McDowell also said that the failure of the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to track the crash site was due to the fact that NASA did not observe the impact.
Marco Langbroek, a Netherlands-based astronomy expert, said that the crash was likely caused by a malfunction. He said that the crater was likely very small.
Material from the report says that the Falcon rocket, which carried two private payloads after launching from Cape Canaveral on 15 September 2025, was expected to deliver Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost to ispace Resilience. Resilience is a private mission that was scheduled to take off, while Blue Ghost successfully delivered the spacecraft, which then crashed.
It is also noted that NASA plans to launch the next robotic mission to the Moon at some point in the future. The material also says that SpaceX and Blue Origin may launch missions for the Artemis programme, and the first launch could take place as early as 2028.