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SpaceX Falcon 9 stage crashes into moon, creates 100-foot crater

CBS 8 San Diego · August 6, 2026 · 2:08 · English · News

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Video from the channel CBS 8 San Diego about Falcon 9, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 2:08. Language: English. Video type: News.

A CBS news report explains that the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9, launched early the previous year, drifted off course and ended up crashing into the near side of the Moon with an energy of nearly 3 tons of TNT.

The fragment, weighing around 4 tons, hit at roughly 5,400 miles per hour and may have opened a crater about 100 feet wide and 16 feet deep. SpaceX says it complied with regulations; the trajectory is attributed to solar activity and gravity. The report recalls NASA's intentional impact in 2009, which confirmed the presence of water ice in lunar craters.

For scientists, including those at Arizona's Lowell Discovery Telescope, it is a rare chance to study the impact of an artificial object in real time and learn more about the Moon's composition.

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