Spacex Rocket Crash Site on the Moon Revealed in New Images

The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) has released images taken by its Danuri lunar orbiter showing the impact site of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket upper stage that crashed into the moon on 5 August. The craft, which had launched in January 2022 carrying the Hakuto-R spacecraft from commercial company ispace, hit the lunar surface at about 8,700 kilometres per hour. The images, taken before and after the impact, confirm that the crash left a crater.

Astronomers had trained their telescopes on the predicted impact site, but the crater was too small for amateur observers to see. KASA shared the images on X and warned that videos circulating on social media claiming to show the impact are fake.