NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured dramatic images of the impact crater created when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage crashed into the Moon’s surface earlier this month.
On Aug. 5, the rocket’s uncontrolled upper stage struck the Moon at an estimated speed of 5,400 mph, creating a new lunar impact crater.
The approximately 10,800-pound Falcon 9 upper stage had launched two lunar landers in January 2025. After remaining in orbit around the Moon, the stage eventually lost control and impacted the lunar surface.
NASA released new images of the SpaceX rocket crash site captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on Aug. 11 and 12. Before-and-after images reveal bright markings and depressions across the Moon’s already heavily cratered terrain.
Although no live video recorded the Aug. 5 impact, researchers tracked the rocket’s trajectory and identified the likely crash zone along the western edge of the Moon’s sunlit side. The images confirmed the presence of a new crater.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter travels from pole to pole around the Moon roughly every two hours. Because the Moon rotates as the spacecraft orbits, photographing a precise location requires careful timing and positioning.
NASA said it took the orbiter six days to pass over the SpaceX rocket impact site.
Engineers also had to tilt the spacecraft so its camera could face the crater as it flew about 90 miles above the Moon’s surface at approximately 1 mile per second.
The new photographs show that the lunar crater is about 60 feet wide and likely less than 10 feet deep, based on the length of its shadow, according to NASA.
The images also show light and dark streaks extending from the crater. NASA said the darker rays consist of dust and rocks thrown across the surface by the impact, while the brighter material near the crater’s rim was excavated from beneath the lunar soil.
The center of the crater is located at an elevation of approximately 1,700 feet, according to NASA.
Shortly after the collision, a telescope in Chile detected a debris plume from the impact. Later, South Korea’s Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, launched in 2022 as the country’s first lunar probe, passed over the site and photographed the crater and surrounding ejecta.
The Falcon 9 crash is only the second known instance of a human-made rocket unintentionally striking the Moon. While asteroids and other space objects have hit the lunar surface countless times, uncontrolled impacts involving spacecraft remain extremely rare.
In 2022, what appeared to be the upper stage of a Chinese rocket that launched a test capsule toward the Moon in 2014 crashed into the far side of the lunar surface. The impact created a distinctive double, snowman-shaped crater that was discovered months later by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. China denied that the rocket stage belonged to one of its missions. NASA documented the unusual impact crater.
The SpaceX rocket impact has renewed debate over space sustainability and the management of abandoned hardware, particularly as the United States, China and other nations compete to establish new missions, infrastructure and crewed bases on the Moon.
SpaceX said in an Aug. 5 statement that it is working to responsibly account for hardware left in space after missions end.
“We are actively working to be as responsible as possible for hardware left in space to ensure the safety of space, including for more complex missions,” the company said. “In this case, over time, solar activity and gravity guided the second stage toward the Moon. Although such collisions are rare, they can occur with objects in these types of orbits, and we worked with NASA on the optimal disposal solution.”
Source: www.nbcnews.com