NASA reveals its first images of the crater left by SpaceX rocket crashing into moon
New NASA images have revealed the crater that has been left on the moon after part of the SpaceX Falcon 9 smashed into it at 5,400 mph.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off in January 2025 as part of the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission.
It was never SpaceX's intention to hit the moon, but on 5 August, the Falcon 9’s upper stage, which measured around 40 feet, crashed into the lunar surface after floating through space for more than a year.
Up to now, stargazers have only had a blurry glimpse of the crater that was left behind thanks to some photos from The Korea AeroSpace Administration announced on Thursday.
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The space agency said that their observation had 'identified signs of topographic changes and spread of explosives near the impact site’.
However, now NASA has shared its images, which were captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and give us our first proper look at the crater.
The images were taken between 11 and 12 August, with NASA engineers tilting the spacecraft so its cameras would point toward the crater each time LRO passed about 60 miles above the moon, traveling at one mile per second.
In a press release NASA explained that the angle was only half of the problem, with timing having to be super precise as even if the camera snapped just 10 seconds late or early, the intended target - aka the crater - would be 10 miles away.
The US space agency says the crater measures around 60‑foot wide and is under 10-foot deep.
Explaining what the black and white images show, NASA said: “The images above show bright and dark rays stretching out from the crater.
“The darker streaks are made of surface dust and rocks altered over a long time by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. This weathered material was excavated by the collision from 1.5 feet into the lunar surface.
“The brighter streaks near the crater rim are made of fresh material excavated from deeper underground.”
The crater can’t be seen with the naked eye and it took NASA around six days to find the crash site thanks to a ‘global coordination among experts and hobbyists’.
What is SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket?
SpaceX's Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured for, what the company says is 'the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond'.
The rocket was launched last year before its 4,000kg upper stage section was then shed in space as planned. However this went on to be involved in the accidental collision with the lunar surface.
SpaceX launched this specific Falcon 9 rocket as part of a US and Japanese mission to carry a pair of lunar landers and specialist equipment to the moon in 2025.
One of the private lunar landers, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, became the first private spacecraft to pull off a fully successful lunar touchdown. The other, Japan-based ispace’s lander, wrecked.
With the moon as the new travel hot spot, scientists have said it is crucial to improve debris monitoring and traffic control before packs of robots and astronauts arrive. The United States and China are racing to land astronauts on the moon in the next few years.
Claire Reid