By 
October 7th, 2026
Image credit: NASA
Earth’s Moon is a historical landmark – a celestial body continually peppered with robotic landers shot from our home planet as well as being an in-your-face world dotted with human footprints planted there by a dozen visiting moonwalkers from 1969 to 1972.
A recent gathering in Italy of the International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage looked at protecting lunar heritage with an eye towards guidelines for spacecraft de-orbiting onto the Moon’s surface.
Particular attention was paid to the risks posed by the impacts of de-orbited satellites and rocket stages, recently highlighted by the crash of a SpaceX upper stage onto the Moon’s surface last August.
As pointed out in the meeting, as lunar traffic increases, controlled crash landings of orbiters and rocket stages are becoming an attractive and sustainable end-of-mission disposal strategy.
Image credit: Korea Aerospace Administration
And that’s a problem.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “Can we protect historic sites on the moon from the coming lunar rush?” – at:
Posted in Space News
