NASA images show 60-foot-wide crater on moon after SpaceX rocket booster crash
Summary
NASA released sharp photos showing a 60-foot-wide crater on the moon made by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster that crashed on August 5. The rocket hit the moon at high speed after drifting in space for more than a year, creating a fresh impact visible in detail from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.Key Facts
- The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster weighed 8,800 pounds and measured about 45 feet long and 12 feet wide.
- It crashed into the moon at 5,400 miles per hour, creating an impact equal to nearly 3 tons of TNT.
- The crater is about 60 feet wide and less than 10 feet deep, with dark and bright streaks around it.
- Dark streaks represent old surface material exposed by the crash; bright streaks are fresh rocks and dirt from deeper layers.
- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took the images a week after the crash from about 60 miles above the moon.
- The orbiter has been circling the moon since 2009 to support NASA's lunar exploration missions.
- This impact is one of the few artificial collisions on the moon compared to natural ones like meteoroid hits.
- The Falcon 9 rocket had launched private moon landers in January 2025 as part of NASA’s effort to help commercial lunar exploration.
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