SpaceX upper stage leaves 60-foot crater on the Moon, spied by NASA's LRO
TL;DR
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 upper stage slammed into the Moon on Aug. 5, 2026, carving a roughly 60-foot-wide crater near Einstein Crater at about 5,400 mph; NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured imagery on Aug. 11–12 showing bright and dark ejecta and a crater depth under 10 feet. The stage had been drifting for over 18 months and had previously carried two lunar lander attempts—Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience—before the crash.
- A SpaceX rocket slammed into the moon this month — and a NASA spacecraft has spotted its lunar grave (photos) Space
- Before-and-after NASA images show crater carved by a SpaceX rocket that slammed into the moon AP News
- NASA’s LRO Images Falcon 9 Crater on Moon, Learns New Details NASA Science (.gov)
- Before-and-after images show where SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon The Washington Post
- New images reveal what happened when a SpaceX rocket slammed into the moon CNN
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