Here Are the First Images of the Crater Left on the Moon by SpaceX’s Rocket
South Korea's Danuri orbiter has captured the first images of a crater on the moon created by a discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fragment. The impact, which occurred after the rocket spent over a year in an unstable orbit, confirms scientific predictions regarding the collision.
Why it matters
It highlights the growing issue of space debris and the international monitoring of lunar impacts.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute shared the first photographs captured by its lunar orbiter. South Korea is one of the few nations that currently has satellites traveling around the moon at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface. The Danuri orbiter flew over the region shortly after the impact.
KARI explained on its X account that it photographed the collision site both before and after the event. The images show signs of a recent impact, which astronomers projected would likely create a crater dozens of feet wide nearly 12 feet (3.6 meters) deep.
This evidence of the collision adds to observations from the Very Large Telescope, where astronomers detected sodium and lithium rising from the lunar surface, confirming that the rocket fragment did indeed strike the moon.
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