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Korean lunar orbiter snaps first pics of the SpaceX Falcon 9 crash site on the moon
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Korea's Danuri orbiter captured before-and-after images of the Falcon 9 upper stage's lunar impact, revealing a crater roughly 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep.
For engineers, this event highlights the real-world outcome of skipping controlled disposal on high-energy upper stages, and it shows how existing lunar orbiters can serve as impact monitors. The images give concrete data on crater morphology from a human-made object, which is rare and useful for future mission planning and debris modeling.
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Danuri's before-and-after images are the first visual confirmation of the Falcon 9 upper stage's crash site, with NASA estimating the crater at 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep.
SpaceX explained that for high-energy lunar transfer missions, a controlled disposal maneuver is not always possible because nearly all vehicle performance goes to payload delivery.
KASA clarified that a video circulating online is not from Danuri; the orbiter only captured still images before and after the impact.
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