South Korea's space agency has released images showing the Moon after part of a SpaceX rocket crashed into its surface on Wednesday. The Korean AeroSpace Administration (KASA) said lunar orbiter Danubri captured images after the impact, which it shared, external alongside photos showing what the Moon's surface looked like before the crash.
Rocket debris struck the Moon at around 06:35 GMT on Wednesday, according to the South Korean space agency, while SpaceX said the impact was not intentional. The event drew attention because the discarded rocket stage had been tracked for months as it drifted through space before eventually colliding with the lunar surface.
What kind of rocket part hit the Moon?
The object was the empty upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket. Scientists had predicted it would hit the Moon at a speed of about 5,400mph (8,700km/h), and the stage is about the size of a five-storey building and weighs approximately 4,000kg (630st) on Earth.
Re-usable Falcon 9 rockets were designed so that part of the rocket returns to Earth, while other sections are shed in space. SpaceX has used this type of rocket on several missions. The short, dramatic flash created when the rocket part hit the Moon would have been hard to catch by amateur astronomers even with high-end telescopes, but larger observatories - including Seoul's space agency - are analysing the information.
How did the rocket end up striking the lunar surface?
This Falcon 9 had been in orbit since January last year, when it blasted off from Florida. The same booster section from the January 2025 mission is due to set off on its 18th flight on 10 August, and SpaceX says the mission hopes to launch 29 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.
The rocket that blasted from Florida last January was carrying two lunar landers into space. Its job was to fire the upper stage hard enough to send both landers out of Earth's orbit and onto a path towards the Moon.
The spent stage was left drifting in a long, looping orbit that swung out towards the Moon and back again. Over the next 18 months, the gentle gravitational tug of the Earth, Moon and Sun, along with light from the Sun, gave it a faint push.
Astronomers tracking the rocket part eventually worked out that those small nudges had put it on a course towards the Moon, and it was picking up speed every day. The impact on Wednesday happened in broad daylight for many parts of the world, but the tiny flash it produced would have been far too faint to see, even through a telescope.
Why are scientists concerned about space debris?
While the impact did not pose any danger to Earth, Matt Bothwell, astronomer at the University of Cambridge, raised concerns about space debris.
Space is getting more and more crowded,
he said, as each year
we launch more stuff into space
.
It could feasibly be within a few decades that it's actually quite hard to get past Earth's orbit because space is so crowded,
Bothwell warned.
The Moon images released by KASA were presented as a before-and-after comparison, showing the lunar surface before the crash and after the impact. The South Korean agency said its orbiter Danubri captured the post-impact view and shared it alongside the earlier images.
What happened after the mission that launched the rocket?
The Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida in January 2025 was used to send two lunar landers toward the Moon. Its upper stage was then left in orbit and later tracked as it gradually shifted course under the influence of the Earth, Moon and Sun, plus sunlight pressure.
That slow change in trajectory continued until astronomers concluded the stage would hit the Moon. The impact was detected at 06:35 GMT on Wednesday, but the flash was too faint to be seen easily from Earth, even during the day and even with telescopes.
Key Facts
- KASA said lunar orbiter Danubri captured images after the impact and shared them with before-and-after photos.
- The debris struck the Moon at around 06:35 GMT on Wednesday.
- The object was the empty upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, predicted to hit at about 5,400mph (8,700km/h).
- SpaceX said the impact was not intentional.
- The same booster section from the January 2025 mission is due to set off on its 18th flight on 10 August.
