South Korea Releases Moon Images After SpaceX Rocket Debris Impact
South Korea's space agency has released images of the Moon after a spent Falcon 9 upper stage from a January 2025 mission crashed into the lunar surface. The impact flash was too faint to be seen even with a telescope.
South Korea's space agency has released images of the Moon following the impact of a spent rocket stage from a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission. The debris crashed into the lunar surface on Wednesday, though the impact flash was too faint to be observed with telescopes.
The upper stage came from a Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from Florida in January 2025. Its mission was to send two lunar landers beyond Earth's orbit toward the Moon. After the upper stage completed its task, it was left in a wide, looping orbit that repeatedly swung past the Moon.
Over the following 18 months, subtle gravitational influences from the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun, along with solar radiation pressure, gradually altered the stage's trajectory. Astronomers tracking the debris calculated that these small perturbations were steering it onto a course toward the Moon, with velocity increasing daily.
The impact occurred during daylight for a large portion of the world, but the resulting flash was too faint to be seen, even through a telescope.
Separately, the first-stage booster from the same January 2025 launch is scheduled to make its 18th flight on August 10. SpaceX plans to use it to deploy 29 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.
