NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Images Falcon 9 Crater on Moon, With Some Help From a Korean Spacecraft
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully captured high-resolution images of a new crater on the Moon caused by a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster crash. The maneuver required precise timing and positioning to document the impact site, which measures 18 meters wide and 3 meters deep.
Why it matters
This event demonstrates the capability of orbital assets to monitor lunar surface changes and provides data on the impact dynamics of space debris on celestial bodies.
A SpaceX Falcon upper stage crashed into the Moon on August 5th when their orbits brought them into conflict. The upper stage was from launching a pair of lunar landers toward the Moon: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience. The upper stage weighed about 4,000 kg and slammed into the Moon at almost 9,000 km per hour. It struck the Moon's near side close to the Einstein crater.
A few days later, between August 11th and 12th, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) imaged the new crater. It imaged from an altitude of about 96 km. The LRO is in a polar orbit over the Moon, and it images whatever is underneath it as the Moon rotates. That's why there are six days between the booster's crash and the images.
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