NASA has been hunting the site where a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the moon. South Korea’s lunar orbiter may have found it first.
Earlier this week, a piece of a SpaceX rocket joined the ranks of space rocks and other wayward spacecraft that have slammed into the moon and become permanent fixtures of our celestial neighbor’s surface.
Predicated as early as April, the lunar crash had for months attracted considerable attention from astronomers and the general public eager to see how the collision would play out. While the spectacle wasn’t exactly easy to spot from Earth, lunar orbiters and, perhaps, even other spacecraft were expected to be in position to at least document the aftermath.
Now, South Korea’s lunar orbiter is among the first to return images of the blast and the sizable new crater it left on the moon.
Here’s a look at what the orbiter captured, and what could be next as NASA also hunts for the crash site.
SpaceX rocket crashes into the moon
The upper-stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket slammed into the moon Aug. 5, astronomers have confirmed. The 8,800-pound rocket hardware was expected to be traveling at about 5,400 mph at the time of the crash, which occurred near a feature known as the Einstein crater.
Independent astronomer Bill Gray, who writes the widely used astronomy software Project Pluto, appears to be the first to calculate and predict the stage’s impact using ground telescope observations of the object, designated 2025-010D.
Orbiting high above Earth once every 26 days, the object was pulled uncontrollably toward the moon by a combination of solar activity and gravitational forces after exhausting all of its fuel, according to astronomers and SpaceX.
It was not an entire Falcon 9 rocket that made the impact, but just a 45-foot portion known as the upper or second-stage. The first-stage (or lower-stage) that provided the initial burst of thrust at liftoff would have separated much earlier in the flight and returned to Earth for a controlled landing to be recovered, refurbished and reused by SpaceX for future launches.
Korean lunar orbiter spots Falcon 9 crash site
The collision was expected to create a crater about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep and throw a plume of dust and rock outward into the air.
Now, South Korea’s lunar orbiter appears to be among the first spacecraft near the moon to capture imagery of the aftermath.
The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, known as Danuri, began observations about 30 minutes before the crash and continued to monitor the site afterward, making “a total of 8 imaging sessions,” the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said in a translated post on social media site X.
“Through this observation, changes in the terrain around the impact site and traces of ejecta spread were confirmed,” KARI continued in the post, which included several before-and-after photos of the impact site.
See photos of SpaceX rocket crash on the moon
NASA also hunts for rocket’s lunar impact
NASA is also hunting for the crash site using its own Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the moon since 2009.
But finding the location isn’t exactly easy, as it depends on “lighting, orbital timing and spacecraft position,” the agency said in a press release before the impact. NASA added that it may take “several days to receive imagery” if any is even captured.
“Any data collected will help scientists better understand artificial impacts and their exploration implications,” NASA said in a statement.
What is the Falcon 9 rocket?
The Falcon 9 rocket manufactured by Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the most active rocket in the world. Standing 230 feet tall, the two-stage rocket is classified as a medium-lift launch vehicle capable of carrying about 50,000 pounds of cargo to orbit.
SpaceX has launched the Falcon 9 hundreds of times from both Florida’s Space Coast and the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to deliver its Starlink broadband internet satellites and other payloads to low-Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 is also the only American-made rocket that propels astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule to the International Space Station.
What did Elon Musk, SpaceX say about moon impact?
The Falcon 9 upper-stage that crashed into the moon was used in a mission to propel Firefly Aerospace’s uncrewed commercial lunar lander to the moon in a January 2025 launch from Florida.
Most upper stages typically fall back to Earth’s atmosphere, where they burn up or plunge into the ocean, after they help deliver a rocket payload to a precise spot in orbit. Because this upper stage had to use more thrust to get the lander into an orbit that could reach the moon, it instead got stuck in a sort of orbital limbo, according to SpaceX.
“We actively work to be as responsible as possible with hardware left in space to ensure space safety, including for more complex missions,” SpaceX said in a post on X. “Impacts like this are rare, but they can happen with objects in these types of orbits, and we worked with NASA on the optimal disposal solution.”
SpaceX concluded its post referencing Starship, its 400-foot rocket that is still being developed. As opposed to the Falcon 9 and its expendable upper stage, Starship’s second stage is designed to be reusable, which SpaceX claimed will in the future limit human-made hardware left in orbit.
Other spacecraft have crashed into moon before
This is far from the first time a spacecraft has crashed into the moon at such a high speed. In fact, Gray tracked a similar Chinese rocket upper-stage that hit the moon in 2022.
In 2009, NASA crashed two spacecraft into the moon on purpose in an effort to determine if water-ice was present in a permanently shadowed crater on the south pole, the space agency explained.
Following the SpaceX crash, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, a close associate of Musk’s, also claimed in a social media post that “this rare occurrence has decades of history” going as far back as the vaunted Apollo era.
“NASA intentionally crashed spent stages into the moon for science and seismic research,” Isaacman wrote on X, while stating that the agency’s future moon base will also “incorporate reusable spacecraft.”
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com