New crater formed on Moon after SpaceX rocket stage crash
A new crater formed on the Moon after the SpaceX rocket stage crash. The crater appeared on August 5 as a result of the unintentional landing of the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX company, onto the Moon's surface, according to NASA.
Consensus
- The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the Moon on August 5, 26.
- The impact created a crater approximately 18 meters in diameter and about 3 meters deep.
- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured images of the crater.
- The images show bright and dark rays extending from the crater, composed of fresh and weathered lunar material.
- The upper stage had been drifting in space for over a year after being used to launch two commercial lunar landers in January 2025.
- The crash occurred at a speed of approximately 8,700 km/h.
- It took six days for the LRO to capture images of the impact site due to orbital constraints.
- The upper stage was a four-ton metal cylinder, 14 meters long, that did not burn up in Earth's atmosphere or return to Earth.
Points of divergence
- The Falcon 9 launched the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission and the ispace Resilience station. — gazeta_spb
- The Falcon 9 launched the Firefly Blue Ghost and ispace Resilience. — riamo
- The Falcon 9 delivered two lunar landers with experimental equipment and a small rover. — tg_theinsider
- The upper stage weighed at least four thousand tons. — fontanka
- The first image of the impact site was taken by South Korea's Danuri lunar orbiter. — vedomosti
- The crash was caused by solar activity and gravity. — tg_echoonline_news
- The material ejected from the crater at a depth of 45 centimeters was exposed to solar wind, cosmic rays, and micrometeorites. — gazeta_spb
- The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan on July 26, 2025. — vedomosti
Coverage (11 sources)
- New crater formed on the Moon after SpaceX rocket stage crash — ЭХО / Новости
- NASA published photo of new crater on the Moon that appeared after SpaceX rocket crash — The Insider
- NASA showed 18-meter crater from Falcon 9 debris on the Moon — photos — РИАМО
- Crater from rocket stage of Elon Musk found on the Moon - SPB Newspaper - St. Petersburg news — Gazeta.SPb
- NASA showed first footage of new lunar crater created by people — Дождь (Telegram)
- NASA showed images of an 18-meter crater on the Moon after the landing of the SpaseX rocket stage — Фонтанка
- NASA showed a new crater on the Moon after the Falcon rocket fell — Ведомости
- A new crater appeared on the Moon after a part of a SpaceX rocket crashed into the surface. Here is how it looks — Meduza
- NASA showed photo of crater on Moon after SpaceX rocket fall — Коммерсантъ
- NASA published photo of crater on the Moon from SpaceX rocket — Вести
- NASA showed images of an 18-meter crater on the Moon from the fall of a fragment of the Mask rocket. — РИА Новости (Telegram)
Key entities
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