NASA photographs depict SpaceX rocket crash’s 60-foot lunar crater
A NASA spacecraft orbiting the moon is delivering the clearest images to date of the crater formed by the impact of a SpaceX rocket. The space agency published before-and-after photographs of the impact zone on Tuesday. The Falcon rocket’s upper stage impacted the moon at a velocity of 5,400 mph (8,700 kph) on August 5, following a trajectory through space that lasted over a year. In 2025, a pair of private moon landers were launched, equipped with experiments and a small rover, as part of NASA’s initiative to commercialise lunar exploration.
According to scientists, the recent images captured by Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal a new crater measuring 60 feet (18 meters) in diameter and less than 10 feet (3 meters) in depth. Dark and bright streaks are distinctly observable radiating from the crater, resembling the wings of a butterfly. The darker lines signify excavated material that was near the surface, sculpted over aeons by solar wind, cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. The brighter rays signify newly exposed rocks and soil that have been ejected from deeper layers below.
The spacecraft captured an image of the crater one week post-collision from an altitude of 60 miles (96 kilometres), travelling at a velocity of one mile per second. Flight controllers adjusted the orientation of the spacecraft to ensure its cameras were directed at the site of the impact. The orbiter executes a lunar polar orbit every two hours, coinciding with the moon’s rotation beneath it. It required a span of six days for the crash scene to become visible.
South Korea’s Danuri spacecraft was the first to arrive and transmit images. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been in orbit around the moon since 2009, acting as NASA’s detailed observational tool as the agency endeavours to send astronauts back to the lunar surface.
