Images captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal the incident.
On August 5, the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the Moon. NASA has now shared a series of images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) between August 11 and 12, highlighting a new crater formed by the incident.
To capture these images, engineers at NASA tilted the spacecraft so that its cameras could face downward while flying 60 miles above the crater. They utilized the LRO’s Narrow-Angle Camera, capable of detecting features as small as three feet wide on the lunar surface.
This endeavor was challenging, as the spacecraft orbits the Moon every two hours at a speed of 1 mile per second, with the Moon rotating beneath it. Aligning the LRO and the crash site took six days of careful timing. Before-and-after photos are available on the agency’s official channels.
The images reveal the crater from various perspectives. A darker streak around the impact site is composed of older materials, including dust and rocks transformed by prolonged exposure to solar winds and cosmic rays. In contrast, the lighter materials near the crater’s rim originated from deeper layers beneath the Moon’s surface.
Independent astronomer Bill Grey drew attention to the rocket on a collision path with the Moon back in April. Using orbit-tracking software, he predicted the point of impact. Grey estimated that the upper stage of the rocket would not cause significant damage. The rocket measured 39 feet in length and 13 feet in width, weighing close to 4,000 kilograms, and crashed into the Moon at a speed of 5,400 mph, creating a crater approximately 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep, as per NASA’s assessments.
This Falcon 9 rocket was originally part of the Blue Ghost mission launched on January 15, 2025, which delivered two lunar landers to orbit. After expending most of its fuel during the mission, it was unable to return to Earth and ended up on a trajectory toward the Moon due to gravity and solar influences.
