CLEVELAND, Ohio — The moon is about to get a new crater, courtesy of a discarded piece of SpaceX rocket hardware. The spent upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to slam into the moon Aug.

SpaceX is preparing for the 12th launch of its Starship rocket, scheduled for May 19, 2026 at its Starbase headquarters south of Corpus Christi. This mission will debut Version 3 of Starship, the largest and most powerful iteration built by the company.

Aug. 5 could see the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that launched in early 2025 crash into the moon. Here’s why — and what damage it might cause.

After Artemis 2, NASA's moon return hinges on two unproven commercial landers, each of which faces major technical and timeline challenges.

NASA is moving quickly to define next year’s Artemis III mission in Earth orbit, a crewed flight that will test rendezvous and docking capabilities between the agency’s Orion spacecraft and commercial landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX.