SpaceX Rocket Leaves 60-Foot Crater on the Moon
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.
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.