NASA estimates the size of the hole SpaceX made in the moon
As the latest Starship finds its way to an obscure part of Australia, for observations
NASA has utilized its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to capture images of the crater created by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage. Private aerospace companies Firefly and ispace utilized a Falcon 9 rocket for their respective missions, Blue Ghost Mission 1 and RESILIENCE. The RESILIENCE mission did not succeed, while the Blue Ghost mission was more successful.
In early August, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 collided with Earth's moon. NASA captured images of the crash between August 11 and 12 and shared them on Tuesday. The images, taken from four different angles, reveal a crater that is 60 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The darker area surrounding the crater appears rougher due to altered surface material from solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts.
Conversely, the brighter rays and splotch above the crater are fresher material excavated from deeper within the moon's surface. Additionally, SpaceX's Starship from the 13th test flight has washed up on Christmas Island, an Australian territory. The island, known for its red crab migration and immigration policies, was chosen for the spacecraft's recovery due to the calm waters nearby, allowing engineers to conduct further post-flight analysis. SpaceX plans to return the Starship to its Texas Starbase for additional work.
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Also reported by 2 other outlets
- Some microbes could survive on the moon—that’s a big problem for NASA scientificamerican.com
- NASA estimates the size of the hole SpaceX made in the moon theregister.com
