Space junk punched a new hole in the moon. It’s not ours to abuse | Moriba Jah

The Guardian UK Monday 31 August 2026, 10:00 UTC By Moriba Jah 1 min read

Key Points

The space industry treats the sky as a place to dump what it no longer wants. We must develop a new model of accountabilityOn 5 August, a piece of a derelict SpaceX rocket traveling at 5,400 miles an hour met with the moon and punched a fresh hole into it near Einstein Crater. Astronomers were thrilled.

The space industry treats the sky as a place to dump what it no longer wants. We must develop a new model of accountability

On 5 August, a piece of a derelict SpaceX rocket traveling at 5,400 miles an hour met with the moon and punched a fresh hole into it near Einstein Crater. Astronomers were thrilled. The European Southern Observatory caught sodium and lithium flaring in the debris plume and called it a bonus. The media called it a light show. Nobody was physically hurt, so nobody is responsible, and within a week the story was gone.

I have spent 20 years tracking the junk humanity leaves behind in space for a living, and I want to tell you plainly what that crater actually is: a receipt. It’s what you get when an entire industry treats the sky, and now the moon, as a place to dump what it no longer wants, and calls the dumping “normal operations” or “space exploration”.

Moriba Jah (ORG) SpaceX (ORG) Einstein Crater (LOCATION) The European Southern Observatory (ORG)

Originally published by The Guardian UK Read original →

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Space junk punched a new hole in the moon. It’s not ours to abuse | Moriba Jah

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