Danuri orbiter images Falcon 9 lunar impact site, KARI confirms
South Korea's Danuri lunar orbiter has just spotted where a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage crashed into the moon on August 5, 2026.
The impact left a huge 27-meter-wide crater, and Danuri snapped before-and-after photos to track how the surface changed.
The discovery was confirmed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) the next day.
Danuri and LRO provide impact data
The Falcon 9 stage had been drifting in space since launching two robotic moon landers last year, until solar activity and gravitational forces sent it crashing down at about 8694km/h (8,690 kph).
Now, Danuri's observation data, along with follow-up observations from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, are giving scientists fresh data on how these impacts shape the moon.
KARI is digging into the images as part of international collaborative research.