Image of the crater created by a SpaceX rocket impact on the Moon.

South Korea’s Danuri spacecraft and a Chinese satellite have captured the first images of the crater formed when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket hurtled towards the Moon at nearly 8,700 km/h.

According to Live Science, a series of images taken by South Korea’s Danuri orbiter reveal a small, dark crater at the location believed to be where the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket struck the lunar surface on August 5th. The collision occurred near the Einstein Crater in the northwest of the Moon, near the boundary between the light and dark regions. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) shared the images on social media on August 6th.

The new crater appeared on the Moon after the Falcon 9 rocket collision. Photo: KARI

“Danuri began observing about 30 minutes after the collision and conducted a total of eight imaging sessions using orbital control to fly over the crater area multiple times,” KARI shared. “Through observation, changes in the terrain around the impact site and traces of material dispersion can be confirmed.”

According to SCMP, China’s Gande-1 01 space debris tracking satellite, launched on July 24, also captured images of the impact crater created by the Falcon 9 rocket. Gande-1 01 is equipped with a high-resolution camera that allows the satellite to accurately identify space debris in Earth orbit.

According to CBC, because the area where the Falcon 9 rocket crashed is on the bright side of the Moon, the bright flash from the impact was not visible from Earth. However, scientists at the European Southern Observatory, using the Very Large Telescope in Chile, detected evidence of a dust cloud rising from the Moon’s surface immediately after the impact.

A preliminary study on arXir calculates the impact created a new crater on the Moon approximately 27 meters in diameter and 5 meters deep—too small to observe from Earth even with the best telescopes. It is likely that in the coming days, other spacecraft, such as NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, will provide more accurate measurements of the crater.

The Falcon 9 rocket that caused the collision launched on January 15, 2025, carried two lunar landers. The Blue Ghost, developed by the American private company Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed in March 2025, while the Hakuto-R, developed by the Japanese company iSpace, lost contact with Earth and crashed into the Moon in June 2025.

The location of the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that crashed into the Moon, according to observation data from the Gande-1 01 satellite. Photo: QQ

According to Space, unlike the first stage of the Falcon 9, which can return to Earth for reuse, the second stage of the rocket is usually left behind in orbit. This rocket component floated for nearly a year in an elliptical orbit around Earth before solar radiation combined with the Moon’s gravitational pull pushed it away. The estimated 4-ton second stage crashed into the Moon at a speed of nearly 8,700 km/h, much faster than the speed of sound but still slower than an asteroid.

The upper stage of the Falcon 9 is not the first rocket component to crash into the Moon. The third stage of the Long March 3C rocket, built by China, previously crashed onto the lunar surface on March 4, 2022.

Previously, NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensor mission analyzed the impact of the Centaur rocket’s upper stage at the south pole in 2009, revealing the ice layer beneath the surface. Studying these types of man-made impacts could enhance our understanding of the Moon’s composition and help manage potential risks to astronauts and future permanent bases.