Part of a used SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon's surface at a high speed on Wednesday after having drifted in space since a January 2025 mission.
The unintended impact took place at about 02:35 ET (0635 GMT), as the 3,900-kilogram used Falcon 9 upper stage struck the lunar surface while traveling at roughly 2.4 kilometers per second.
The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) of the Republic of Korea said on Thursday that its lunar orbiter "Danuri" captured high-resolution images of the rocket stage's impact site on the moon.
Preliminary observations show changes in the terrain and ejecta traces near the impact site.
A Chinese commercial space debris monitoring satellite has tracked and recorded the impact of the event.
On Jan. 15, 2025, SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket and successfully deployed Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander to the Moon under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. Solar activity and gravitational forces caused the stage's unplanned return to the Moon.
SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage crashes into moon
