NASA: SpaceX rocket crash made basketball court-size moon crater
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images reveal fresh moon crater from SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, testing impact prediction tools.
A SpaceX rocket staged a collision with the moon in August, creating a crater wider than an NBA basketball court and up to 10 feet deep, NASA has revealed. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a satellite orbiting the moon, captured images of the impact after a six-day wait, as the spacecraft had to align its view with the crater as the lunar surface turned beneath it.
The impact site was near Einstein Crater, a boundary between the moon's near and far sides. The stray rocket, a Falcon 9 upper stage, was heading towards a lunar collision after a year in space. The crash was not intentional, but rather caused by shifts in solar activity and gravity nudging the rocket onto a collision course with the moon.
SpaceX stated that they strive to be responsible with hardware left in space. The new NASA photos show the crater under varying lighting conditions, allowing scientists to measure its width and depth, and revealing a mix of weathered surface material and pristine debris blasted up from deeper underground. Independent astronomers also used public data to trace the rocket's path, and NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies passed the information to South Korea's Danuri orbiter team, which shared its precise coordinates with NASA.
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