Chinese satellite captures video of SpaceX rocket debris crashing into the moon

A newly launched Chinese satellite captured footage of a piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashing into the moon, marking a demonstration of China's space surveillance capabilities. The footage, taken by the country's first space debris monitoring satellite, Gande-1 01, showed an impact near the Einstein crater, consistent with initial reports from other scientists and telescopes.

The satellite, developed by Beijing-based aerospace company ATmoto Technology, has been tracking the debris since mid-July, providing a "proof of ability" for the technology. Although no visible plume was captured in the images, a telescope in Chile observed evidence of sodium and lithium gas in a dust plume. The upper stage of the SpaceX rocket, weighing around 4,000kg, had drifted into a trajectory intersecting the moon after its mission, according to NASA.

This rare event offered scientists a unique opportunity to study the lunar impact in real-time, potentially aiding future seismic experiments and understanding dust and plume dynamics from lunar impacts.