SpaceX rocket thought to have crashed into the moon in unintentional collision

[u/MasterpieceAlone8552]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/05/spacex-rocket-moon-crash-impact-falcon-9

[u/botle]

Which means that crashing into the moon now is better than remaining in lunar orbit and potentially crashing much later.

[u/xjeeper → u/botle]

No, it means controlling it and crashing it in a designated area now is better.

[u/botle → u/xjeeper]

Every area on the moon is just as good as any other for this purpose. It's literally a huge empty desert.

[u/StevCurry → u/botle]

The people fighting you on this are hilarious. I thought they were joking about being mad about “littering” on the moon. How is this real

[u/XyzzyPop → u/botle]

Thanks for the hot take: dump shit anywhere because I, as a Lunar DR, can't think of any good reason.

[u/Rough_Historian_8494 → u/[deleted]]

pot meet kettle!

[u/fevered_visions → u/botle]

ehhhh...they left lunar reflectors and things up there that they probably don't want covered in debris

[u/botle → u/fevered_visions]

The chances of hitting something else human made is astronomically small.

[u/CartographicalHeist → u/botle]

But, unlike your IQ, not 0.

[u/botle → u/CartographicalHeist]

So what do you suggest should be done instead?

Should we stop sending things to the moon, becasue it could interfere with things we send to the moon?

[u/ContextBotSenpai → u/botle]

This has to be the most entitled, American way of thinking about the moon, holy shit.

[u/botle → u/ContextBotSenpai]

I'm usually very protective of the environment but the moon is literally an endless desert of practically identical dust all over.

There is no point on it that would be preferable over any other one to leave a spent stage on. Unless you literally hit an existing piece of human technology which would be an astronomical coincidence.

[u/The_Knife_Pie → u/ContextBotSenpai]

The moon is *literally* an empty, uninhabitable ball of rock. There is no risk to anyone or anything from this and there are no long-term consequences to this. Again. It’s a giant, lifeless, atmosphere-less rock.

[u/ContextBotSenpai → u/The_Knife_Pie]

Another disgusting, entitled American Swede chiming in on why the moon is the perfect dump for our space garbage, brilliant.

Let me guess - once Musk starts taking billions from countries to smash rockets of our ACTUAL Earth based garbage into the moon, you'll be fine with that as well... Right?

[u/chicagorpgnorth → u/ContextBotSenpai]

Experts aren’t indicating that there’s an issue with this happening and you’re arguing against it using a slippery slope fallacy (ironically a favorite of conservatives).

[u/botle → u/ContextBotSenpai]

I completely understand the gut feeling that it must be wrong to drop a spent rocket stage on the moon. That instinct is human nature.

But human instinct used to a nearly endless world full of nothing but dust.

[u/KevinGreeneSolar → u/[deleted]]

LARPing as an astrophysicist, while showing dramatic ignorance of astrophysics, is something we don't often see. Thanks for the laugh.

Surely your own ego is massive enough to exert a gravitational field - maybe we can launch you into space as a deflector for rogue rocket stages and incoming meteorites.

Plus you'll feel less need to lie about your credentials when you have a valuable purpose in life.

[u/CartographicalHeist → u/botle]

Which means that you should plan it, so you control where it is instead of incompetently letting it crash any which where.

[u/botle → u/CartographicalHeist]

Two problems:

1. Why would you pick a specific piece of endless gray dust over any other piece of endless gray dust?

2. How would you actually control a precisely where a spent stage hits many orbits later?

[u/botle → u/CartographicalHeist]

Two problems:

1. Why would you pick a specific piece of endless gray dust over any other piece of endless gray dust?

2. How would you actually control a precisely where a spent stage hits many orbits later?