NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Maps New Moon Crater from Falcon 9 Impact

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter obtained a series of pictures of a new lunar crater during passes on Aug. 11-12, after a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage hit the Moon on Aug. 5 following its Jan. 2025 launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission. To capture the event, the spacecraft was tilted so its Narrow-Angle Camera could focus on the impact site each time it flew about 60 miles overhead, a maneuver that required precise timing to avoid a 10-mile drift.

The crater measures roughly 60 feet across and is under 10 feet deep, as inferred from shadow length, and displays bright fresh material near the rim and darker, older dust farther out. Coordination among NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, JPL, independent astronomers, and South Korea’s Danuri orbiter pinpointed the location within about 0.6 miles, enabling the follow-up imaging. Updated coordinates place the crater at 19.4759° N, 266.7138° E, 511 m elevation.