NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured high-resolution images of an 18-meter-wide crater on the Moon, carved by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage that crashed into the lunar surface at 8,700 kilometers per hour following a January 2025 launch.
Tracking the Falcon 9 Impact Site
The upper stage ploughed into the lunar landscape on August 5, ending more than a year of unpowered drift through space after deploying the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission, as detailed by NASA Science. To photograph the resulting scar, engineers at the space agency had to carefully orchestrate orbital maneuvers. Between August 11 and August 12, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) executed targeted imaging sequences while circling the Moon from pole to pole every two hours.
Getting the cameras aligned required extreme precision. Flight controllers tilted the spacecraft so its Narrow-Angle Camera could point toward the impact zone during passes occurring about 96 kilometers above the surface, while traveling at roughly 1.6 kilometers per second. Because of the Moon’s rotation beneath the polar orbit, the spacecraft had to wait six days until the target area turned into view. Timing was so critical that snapping an image even 10 seconds too early or too late would have caused the target to drift off-center by 10 miles, according to mission documentation.
Crater Dimensions and Ejecta Morphology
Analysis of the varied lighting angles revealed distinct physical characteristics of the fresh impact site. Scientists measured the crater’s width at approximately 18 meters (60 feet), while determining its depth to be less than 3 meters (10 feet) based on the length of the shadow cast by the rim. Dark and bright streaks radiate outward from the center like butterfly wings, providing a stark visual record of subterranean excavation.
The darker rays consist of surface dust and rock that weathered over eons due to solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts, having been unearthed from roughly 1.5 feet below the surface. In contrast, the brighter streaks near the rim represent fresh, unweathered material hurled up from deeper underground. Prior to the LRO imaging run, South Korea’s Danuri spacecraft was first on the scene, utilizing its high-resolution LUTI camera to capture initial photos of the site and verify trajectory predictions to within about 0.6 miles.
Global Coordination and Planetary Defense Validation
Pinpointing the exact crash site relied on a cooperative effort spanning independent astronomers, hobbyists, and institutional trackers. Independent researchers initially identified the rocket’s trajectory using publicly available data. NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), operating out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as part of the agency’s Planetary Defense program, seized the opportunity to test and validate tools designed to predict impacts from natural hazards.
CNEOS incrementally refined the trajectory data and shared the impact coordinates with the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter team. That initial reconnaissance data ultimately allowed the LRO team to update the final crater center coordinates to 19.4759°N, 266.7138°E at an elevation of 511 meters. The LRO has maintained a continuous lunar presence since 2009, mapping the terrain as preparations continue for future crewed landings.
