{"id":8918,"date":"2026-08-06T18:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enteratelatino.org\/?p=8918"},"modified":"2026-08-22T12:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:47:29","slug":"nasa-confirms-that-debris-from-a-spacex-rocket-impacted-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enteratelatino.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/06\/nasa-confirms-that-debris-from-a-spacex-rocket-impacted-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA confirms that debris from a SpaceX rocket impacted the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo: Adobe Stock<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miami (USA), Aug 5 (EFE) \u2013 A SpaceX upper stage unintentionally impacted the lunar surface early Wednesday morning, NASA confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In a video released on X, NASA described the event as safe and posing no risk to Earth or to missions operating on the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upper stage belonged to a 2025 launch that deployed the Blue Ghost One lander, built by Firefly Aerospace, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, a commercial service for transporting scientific and technological payloads to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to NASA, the impact occurred due to a combination of solar activity and gravitational forces that altered the object’s trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“NASA did not deliberately plan for this upper stage to impact the Moon,” a spokesperson for the agency explained in the video, noting that this type of hardware disposal is an accepted practice in lunar operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is actually a technically accepted and safe method for disposing of equipment in low lunar orbit,”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the agency stated. It added that some mission operators choose to end their operations by impacting their equipment on the lunar surface because “it’s a predictable and traceable strategy for disposing of end-of-life hardware.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact poses absolutely no danger to anyone on Earth or to any equipment on the Moon, NASA noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Scientists are eager to study this impact event, as it may help us better understand how to track things like this in the future,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA explained that the Moon serves as a “natural laboratory for studying processes that occur throughout the solar system” because it lacks an atmosphere and its surface remains stable for long periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying these types of impacts allows scientists to analyze crater formation, a phenomenon that occurs on various bodies in the solar system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“By impacting an object of known size at a known speed against the lunar surface, scientists can understand the process of impact crater formation and what type of crater results from an impact of that size,”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the agency explained. It noted that the Moon has been constantly bombarded throughout its roughly 4 billion-year history. “Meteorites, asteroids, comets, and other objects hit the Moon all the time,” it stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, NASA noted that the astronauts of the Artemis II mission observed several impact phenomena during their lunar flyby this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These included flashes of active impacts, or craters forming on the lunar surface, during the few hours their flyby lasted, the agency indicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two NASA astronauts complete spacewalk to upgrade ISS solar panels<\/a><\/blockquote>