NASA spots new crater on the moon created when a SpaceX rocket crashed - NBC News

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured before-and-after images of a new lunar crater formed when a defunct Falcon 9 upper stage crashed into the moon uncontrolled on Aug. 5, striking at an estimated 5,400 mph.
The roughly 10,800-pound booster had launched two landers to the moon in January 2025 before remaining adrift in orbit until the impact along the western edge of the moon's sunlit side.
NASA released the new images on Aug. 18, taken by the orbiter on Aug. 11 and 12 from different angles as sunlight gradually shifted, with each frame showing an area about 1,000 feet wide.
The crater measures roughly 60 feet across and is likely less than 10 feet deep, based on the length of its shadow, with its center sitting at an elevation of about 1,700 feet.
Photos revealed bright and dark streaks around the crater; darker rays are surface dust and rock kicked up from about 1.5 feet deep, while brighter streaks near the rim came from fresher material excavated from deeper underground.
Capturing the site required patience, as the orbiter circles the moon pole-to-pole every two hours and took six days to line up over the crash site, with engineers tilting the spacecraft to aim its cameras while flying 60 miles above the surface at 1 mile per second. A telescope in Chile spotted the debris plume shortly after impact, and South Korea's Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter later photographed the site.