NASA has released images from its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) revealing a new crater on the Moon, created when the spent upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the lunar surface on 5 August. The rocket stage, left in a wandering orbit after completing its mission, was drawn towards the Moon by gravity and solar activity, and the resulting impact site has now been documented in detail by NASA engineers.

To photograph the crater, NASA had to tilt the LRO sideways so its Narrow-Angle Camera, capable of resolving features as small as three feet wide, could point downward as the spacecraft passed 60 miles overhead; aligning the orbiter with the crash site took six days. The rocket stage, 39 feet long, 13 feet wide and weighing around 4,000kg, struck the Moon at roughly 5,400mph, leaving a crater about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep, with a darker debris streak of older surface material surrounding lighter material thrown up from underground. The rocket originated from the Blue Ghost lunar lander mission launched on 15 January 2025, and its impending impact was first identified in April by independent astronomer Bill Grey.