South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter has photographed the Moon’s surface before and after the unplanned impact of a spent SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage. The images, released by the Korean Aerospace Administration, provide early visual evidence of the impact and renew attention on how lunar missions dispose of hardware as traffic around the Moon increases.

The stage had launched Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 and ispace’s RESILIENCE lunar missions in 2025, but could not re-enter Earth’s atmosphere from its lunar-transfer orbit. SpaceX said it had worked with NASA on disposal options, while NASA administrator Jared Isaacman noted that comparable meteoroid impacts occur roughly every six days; Danuri, launched four years earlier on a Falcon 9, is now operating under an extension through 2027.