SpaceX Has Reached the Moon, Just Not How Elon Musk Might Have Planned It

Badar Shaikh

Sun, August 9, 2026 at 4:00 PM GMT+3 5 min read

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Space Exploration Technologies Corp. may have achieved one of CEO Elon Musk's long-standing goals of reaching the lunar surface, but not in the way the commercial spaceflight giant would have envisioned, after a rocket crashed into the moon on Wednesday.

Falcon 9 Launched in January 2025 Causes 60-Foot Crater

The upper stage of a Falcon 9 Rocket launched in January 2025 crashed into the moon at approximately 5,400 mph following more than a year's worth of drifting through space, leaving an approximately 60-foot-wide crater on the Lunar surface near the Einstein and Bell craters, according to a statement by NASA.

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"Solar activity and gravitational forces caused the stage's unplanned return to the Moon," the agency said in its statement. The Falcon 9 rocket was carrying a lunar lander part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The lunar lander, Firefly Aerospace Inc.'s Blue Ghost 1, successfully landed on the moon.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for a comment.

Musk, in a post on X on Wednesday, shared a video that showcased a simulation of the moment the Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage crashed into the moon. Debris can be seen flying off several hundred feet in the air at the moment of impact. NASA confirmed the crash poses no danger to Earth.

pic.twitter.com/eMjhOtsNVM

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2026

SpaceX's Earnings

Coinciding with the crash landing, SpaceX also held its first-ever earnings call since going public back in June this year. The commercial space flight company reported its second-quarter revenue of $7.81 billion, which was up 92% YoY and above the analysts' estimates of $6.93 billion.

SpaceX also reported an EPS loss of 9 cents per share, beating market estimates of 23 cents per share. The company also said that it expects to reach an annual revenue of $1 trillion by the end of the decade, with Musk hailing the company's earnings as a warning for short-sellers.

NASA's Artemis Program

The company remains a crucial part of NASA's plans to reach the Moon through its Artemis Program, with the agency's Administrator, Jared Isaacman, saying that NASA cannot establish a permanent presence on the Lunar surface without SpaceX. Meanwhile, Musk had said that the commercial spaceflight company will aim to reach the surface of Mars in the next 5-7 years.

Photo courtesy: Samuel Boivin / Shutterstock.com

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