SpaceX Rocket Crater: NASA Reveals Moon Impact Photos

The moon bears a permanent scar from an out-of-control SpaceX rocket. Before-and-after images released by NASA show exactly how Elon Musk's uncontrolled Falcon 9 second stage carved a sixty-foot crater into the lunar surface. The impact happened earlier this month when the rocket smashed into the ground at five thousand four hundred miles per hour.

Scientists calculate that the nine thousand nine hundred twenty-pound, thirty-nine-foot-long vehicle hit with the force of fifteen thousand sticks of dynamite or three tonnes of TNT. A NASA satellite captured pictures showing the result of that impact: a sixty-foot-wide hole surrounded by streaks of lunar rock thrown up by the crash.

'Spotted: Falcon 9 impact site,' NASA wrote on X. The agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took these photos while orbiting earlier this month. 'NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured images of a new crater on the moon.' They noted the hole formed on August 5, 2026, when the SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage struck the surface. In the remarkable image, the fresh damage is clear with a darkened rim and dark streaks radiating from its center.

The left side of the comparison shows the moon's surface before the rocket crashed into it. The right side reveals the new sixty-foot-wide crater surrounded by streaks of lunar rock. One of Elon Musk's discarded rockets ended up on the moon. Engineers tilted the spacecraft so its cameras would point toward the crater as the satellite passed sixty miles above, travelling one mile per second.

As well as measuring its width, scientists determined the crater is less than ten feet deep. They also confirmed the exact coordinates: 19.4759°N, 266.7138°E at an elevation of five hundred eleven meters. 'The images show bright and dark rays stretching out from the crater,' NASA said in a statement. The darker streaks consist of surface dust and rocks altered over time by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. This weathered material was excavated by the collision from one and a half feet into the lunar surface. The brighter streaks near the rim are made of fresh material dug up from deeper underground.

The crash occurred near the Einstein crater on the northwestern limb of the moon. At the time of impact, that side was facing the sun. Because of this angle, the initial flare from the crash was not visible from Earth. Commenting on the new image shared on X, one person joked about SpaceX making lunar graffiti while another wrote X marks the spot. Someone else asked if they were the only one to think the new crater on the moon is a really bad thing.

Has humanity stopped achieving great things for Earth only to start smashing into the moon? That is exactly what happened earlier this month when a Korean lunar satellite captured the first clear images of the crash site. The blackened crater sits plainly on the lunar surface, a stark reminder of the collision.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact zone at 7:34 am BST, just after SpaceX's rocket struck. This orbiter managed to snap photos 30 minutes before the event occurred, offering a dramatic before and after view for everyone to see. Meanwhile, researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain claim they recorded the only footage of the impact itself taking place.

The Falcon 9 booster hit just behind the moon's limb, so the actual flash was hidden from direct view. However, astronomers believe they caught the rising plume of dust and debris that the force of the impact kicked out into space. This debris cloud rose high enough to be seen even though the main blast was obscured by the curve of the satellite.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida back in January last year. It carried two private lunar landers, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience, into lunar orbit. That mission was never intended to end with a crash on our neighbor. The primary booster is designed for reuse, safely returning to Earth after pushing upper stages out into space. The later sections are simply jettisoned and left to drift through the void, often burning up in Earth's atmosphere years later.

While no one planned for this specific secondary stage to hit the moon, a combination of lunar gravity and unexpected solar weather pushed it onto a collision course with our satellite. Independent astronomers first spotted the dangerous trajectory before NASA's Centre for Near–Earth Object Studies confirmed the threat. The Daily Mail has contacted SpaceX for comment on how such an event could happen without prior warning.