NASA has finally revealed its first images of the crater made by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage that smashed into the moon on Aug. 5.
The images, captured by the space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) between Aug. 11 and 12, show a 60-foot-wide (18 meters) crater surrounded by streaks of lunar rock thrown up by the rocket's impact.
The new crater was carved into the lunar surface by the upper stage of one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, which launched on Jan. 15, 2025 to deliver a pair of lunar landers to the moon. Unlike Falcon 9's lower stage, which can return to Earth to be reused, the rocket's upper stage is discarded in orbit. In this case, after drifting around our planet for nearly a year, a combination of solar radiation and the moon's gravitational pull nudged the 4.4-ton (4 metric tons) rocket section away from Earth and toward our rocky satellite.
Finding the impact site was a challenge that required global cooperation between hobbyists and experts, NASA said in a statement on Tuesday (Aug. 18). The crash occurred near Einstein crater on the northwestern limb of the moon, which was facing the sun at the time of the collision. As a result, the initial flare from the crash was not visible from Earth.
The images, captured by the space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) between Aug. 11 and 12, show a 60-foot-wide (18 meters) crater surrounded by streaks of lunar rock thrown up by the rocket's impact.
The new crater was carved into the lunar surface by the upper stage of one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, which launched on Jan. 15, 2025 to deliver a pair of lunar landers to the moon. Unlike Falcon 9's lower stage, which can return to Earth to be reused, the rocket's upper stage is discarded in orbit. In this case, after drifting around our planet for nearly a year, a combination of solar radiation and the moon's gravitational pull nudged the 4.4-ton (4 metric tons) rocket section away from Earth and toward our rocky satellite.
Finding the impact site was a challenge that required global cooperation between hobbyists and experts, NASA said in a statement on Tuesday (Aug. 18). The crash occurred near Einstein crater on the northwestern limb of the moon, which was facing the sun at the time of the collision. As a result, the initial flare from the crash was not visible from Earth.