A rocket crashed into the moon. It was harmless, but the next one might not be.

Earlier this month, a discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage crashed into the lunar surface at 8,700 kilometers per hour. This was not a controlled landing. The stage had been drifting, out of fuel and out of control, for 19 months since it delivered Firefly’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience landers to the moon in January 2025. This time, it hit an empty stretch on the lunar surface, approximately 900 kilometers (550 miles) away from any other structures. However, this may not always be the case. By 2030, both the United States and China anticipate crewed landings on the lunar surface. With a mere two to four years until those landings are scheduled to occur, there is minimal time to coordinate lunar safety guidelines to not only protect robotic missions, but also the human lives and infrastructure needed for long-duration crewed missions.