NASA has released high-resolution before-and-after images showing a roughly 60-foot-wide crater created when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage struck the Moon on August 5.
The four-ton rocket stage had been drifting through space for more than a year after its January 2025 launch before gravity and solar activity altered its trajectory.
Images captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show the impact site in detail, with scientists estimating the crater is less than 10 feet deep. The spacecraft had to be precisely tilted while traveling at about 1 mile per second to photograph the location.
Scientists are studying the crater and debris to improve understanding of lunar impacts and help develop techniques to protect future astronauts and lunar infrastructure.
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Before-and-after NASA images show crater carved by SpaceX rocket that slammed into the moon https://t.co/CwoHz4cJVi pic.twitter.com/xTrqcBaKqG
— New York Post (@nypost) August 19, 2026
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