They've done it. NASA's lunar probe has photographed the crater caused by a SpaceX rocket smashing into the Moon - BBC Sky at Night Magazine
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured images of a crater created by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage that crashed into the moon in August 2026. The impact occurred after the rocket stage failed to perform planned stabilization maneuvers.
Why it matters
This incident highlights the challenges of space debris management and the precision of lunar tracking technology.
On 5 August 2026, a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage rocket smashed into the Moon – and NASA has just released images of the aftermath.
The images were captured between 11 and 12 August 2026 by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the Moon since 2009.
They show before and after views of the lunar surface, indicating the location and size of the crater caused by the Falcon 9 impacting the Moon.
The Falcon 9 rocket launched in January 2025 on a mission to take two commercial lunar landers – Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 and ispace's RESILIENCE – to the Moon.
Both landers were successfully delivered to the Moon by the Falcon 9 upper stage, but while the Blue Ghost 1 lander made a successful soft landing, RESILIENCE instead crashed into the lunar surface.
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