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SpaceX Rocket Leaves 60-Foot Crater on the Moon

Is NASA's lunar crater image a scientific triumph or a warning about space debris negligence?

Published AUG 20

SpaceX Rocket Leaves 60-Foot Crater on the Moon

Story

Above: A 60-foot-wide crater formed by a Falcon 9 rocket stage on the Moon, on Aug. 11-12. Image credit: NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines

The Facts

NASA released before-and-after images on Tuesday showing a new crater on the Moon, formed when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage struck the lunar surface on Aug. 5 at an estimated 5,400 mph (8,690 kph).
NASA on X
Space.com
Images captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on Aug. 11 and 12 show the crater measures approximately 60 feet (18 m) wide and less than 10 feet (3 m) deep. Engineers tilted the spacecraft so its cameras could target the site from about 60 miles (97 km) up.
NASA Science
CBS News
The orbiter circles the moon pole to pole every two hours, and it took six days for the crash site to rotate into view. Timing had to be precise as even a 10-second camera delay would shift the target off-center by 10 miles (16 km).
BroBible
Live Science
The crater displays dark and bright streaks extending outward. Darker rays consist of weathered surface material excavated from about 1.5 feet down, while brighter streaks near the rim indicate fresher material blasted from deeper underground.
NBC
New York Post
South Korea's Danuri lunar orbiter was first to image the crater, then shared updated coordinates with NASA's LRO team. The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope also detected sodium and lithium in the debris cloud from the impact.
National Post
Scientific American
The Falcon 9 upper stage had launched two private moon landers in January 2025 before drifting in orbit for over a year. SpaceX said solar activity and gravity gradually directed the booster toward the Moon.
CBS News
NBC

Sources Split

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RIGHT

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CRIT

CENTER

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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

NASA's LRO delivered the sharpest, most detailed look yet at the crater left by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage that struck the Moon on Aug. 5, measuring it at 60 feet wide and less than 10 feet deep. The precision required to capture these images — tilting the orbiter, nailing timing to within 10 seconds — shows exactly how capable existing lunar infrastructure is. This is a genuine scientific win, revealing fresh subsurface material and validating new planetary defense tracking tools.

The Independent on X

NASA Science

Narrative B

SpaceX left a Falcon 9 upper stage adrift after its January 2025 launch, and a little extra fuel could have pushed it into a safe solar orbit, but that choice wasn't made, and now there's a fresh crater on the Moon. The crash does offer some scientific value, with spectrometry detecting lithium and sodium in the debris plume, but the bigger takeaway is that space debris is a growing problem for future trips and exploration that the industry isn't taking seriously enough.