NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has mapped a fresh 60-foot crater carved into the Moon by a spent SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage. The rocket part crashed into the lunar surface on August 5, 2025, following the launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission, prompting global teams to track and image the impact site.
When a spent rocket stage plows into the lunar surface, it leaves behind more than just a dent. Following a coordinated tracking effort among global space agencies and independent astronomers, NASA has released detailed imagery of the scar left by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage that impacted the Moon in August 2025.
Tracking the Falcon 9 Impact Site on the Moon
The upper stage finished its trajectory on August 5, 2025, after launching the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission earlier that year in January. Because the trajectory put the rocket body on a collision course with Earth’s natural satellite, researchers and hobbyists monitored its descent using publicly available data. NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, used the event to test and validate prediction tools for its Planetary Defense program, refining the trajectory until it pinned down the impact location.
That projection was shared with the Republic of Korea’s team operating the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, known as Danuri. The Danuri team used the orbiter’s high-resolution LUTI camera to capture the site just hours later, finding the initial prediction accurate to about 0.6 miles. The Danuri mission then sent those coordinates to the team behind NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to direct their follow-up imaging sequence.
How NASA’s Orbiter Captured the Crater Details
Imaging a specific lunar target requires intense mechanical precision. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter circles the Moon from pole to pole every two hours while the lunar surface rotates underneath. To catch the impact zone, engineers had to wait six days until the target turned into view.
Timing proved just as critical as pointing. If the narrow-angle camera snapped its shot even 10 seconds too early or too late, the target would drift off-center by 10 miles. By utilizing multiple viewing angles under varied lighting conditions, scientists measured the resulting crater at 60 feet wide and less than 10 feet deep based on shadow measurements. Updated coordinates place the center at 19.4759°N, 266.7138°E, at an elevation of 511 meters.
Analyzing Fresh Lunar Material and Weathered Dust
The collision acted as a natural excavation tool, hurling subterranean material across the surrounding landscape. The images reveal bright and dark rays stretching outward from the rim. Darker streaks consist of surface dust and rocks altered over long periods by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts, which the impact excavated from 1.5 feet below the surface. Brighter streaks near the rim show fresh material pulled from deeper underground.
Another SpaceX Vehicle Turns Up in Australia
While lunar observations continue, another piece of SpaceX hardware made headlines closer to Earth. A Starship used during the company’s 13th test flight turned up in the Australian territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX recovery teams towed the spacecraft to the island to leverage its calm waters for extra post-flight analysis before attempting to return it to the Texas Starbase for further work, as detailed in reports regarding the company’s recovery operations.
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