NASA has released new images from its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) showing the crater left by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage that crashed into the Moon in early August 2026. The rocket stage had been used to send private lunar landers from Firefly (Blue Ghost Mission 1) and ispace (RESILIENCE) towards the Moon in 2025, and its trajectory left it on a collision course with the lunar surface. The impact adds to a growing record of human-made debris on the Moon and offers scientists a useful opportunity to study how such collisions alter the surface.

The LRO passed 60 miles (96km) above the Moon at roughly a mile per second and captured four images of the site from different angles, which NASA shared this week alongside similar photos taken earlier by South Korea's space agency. Researchers estimate the resulting crater measures about 60 feet wide and 10 feet deep (18m by 3m), with darker, weathered material surrounding it and brighter, freshly excavated debris visible nearby. Separately, SpaceX's Starship from its 13th test flight was towed to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, after splashing down nearby, allowing engineers calmer waters in which to inspect the craft before it is returned to Texas.