A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage, launched on January 15, 2025, to deploy two private lunar landers, has crashed into the moon on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, as scientists had anticipated. The 4-ton rocket segment, traveling at 5,400 mph, struck the lunar surface near Einstein Crater on the moon's western limb. While no direct visual observation of the impact was possible from Earth, a telescope in Chile detected a debris plume, and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope identified a stream of sodium and lithium stretching for miles into space for five to ten minutes after the collision. Boston University's Carl Schmidt expressed "100% certainty" that the observations confirmed the crash, and retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that the rocket's trajectory on Tuesday night showed it heading straight for the moon. The crash was not deliberate, according to SpaceX's Julianna Scheiman, who said a combination of solar activity and gravity accidentally put the rocket on a collision course. The incident is the latest in a series of unintentional lunar impacts, including a Chinese rocket in 2022, and raises concerns about increasing lunar litter as the U.S. and China race to return astronauts to the moon. Visual confirmation of the crash site and crater is expected next week from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The moon is becoming a key destination for space exploration, with NASA planning a series of robotic missions to establish a sustainable lunar base, and SpaceX and Blue Origin developing landers for the Artemis program. McDowell warned that as activity near the moon increases, such impacts, which can plow up huge amounts of dust, will become unacceptable.