NASA releases LRO photos of moon hit by SpaceX stage
NASA just dropped some photos showing a fresh crater on the moon, thanks to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage crashing into it at 8694km/h back in August 2026.
The impact left a crater about 60 feet wide and less than 10 feet deep, with cool patterns of debris all around, captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) just days after the hit.
LRO and Danuri photographed impact site
To snap these images, LRO had to wait six days for the impact site to come into view and then be tilted at the correct angle so its camera could capture the target while passing about 97km up.
South Korea's Danuri orbiter also pitched in with its own photos.
Together, these missions are helping scientists learn more about how artificial impacts change the moon's surface, right down to the mix of old and new material kicked up by the crash.