NASA has released new images showing the lunar crater created by the impact of a SpaceX rocket's upper stage. The spacecraft, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), captured before-and-after photos of the impact site on Tuesday, providing the clearest view to date of the disturbance.
The SpaceX Falcon rocket's upper stage intentionally impacted the moon on August 5th at approximately 5,400 mph. The stage had been in space for over a year following its launch. The impact occurred as part of NASA's initiative to commercialize lunar exploration, having launched a pair of private moon landers, experiments, and a small rover in 2025.
According to scientists analyzing the LRO images, the newly formed crater measures about 60 feet across and is less than 10 feet deep. The impact site displays distinct dark and bright streaks extending outwards, described as resembling butterfly wings. The darker streaks are thought to be material excavated from the lunar surface, shaped by long-term exposure to solar wind, cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. The brighter streaks indicate fresher rock and soil that were ejected from deeper within the lunar regolith.
The LRO photographed the crater approximately one week after the collision, from an altitude of 60 miles. The spacecraft achieved this by tilting its cameras toward the impact area while orbiting the moon at about one mile per second. The orbiter completes a polar orbit every two hours as the moon rotates beneath it. It took six days for the impact site to come into the orbiter's field of view.
South Korea's Danuri spacecraft was the first to photograph the impact, beaming back images prior to NASA's release. The LRO has been in orbit around the moon since 2009, serving as a key observational tool for NASA as it works toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface.
