NASA Shares Before-And-After Photos Of Moon Crater Made By SpaceX Rocket

BreakingBusinessNASA Shares Before-And-After Photos Of Moon Crater Made By SpaceX RocketByAntonio Pequeño IV,Forbes Staff. Pequeño is a breaking news reporter who covers tech and more.Follow AuthorAug 18, 2026, 08:17pm EDTToplineNASA published before-and-after photos Tuesday of a part of the moon hit by an unmanned SpaceX rocket this month, showing a wide but relatively shallow crater was created by the collision.Before-and-after images of the crater.NASAKey FactsNASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the photos last week from 60 miles above the moon, waiting six days for the moon to rotate and show the collision site.The crater created by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket measured 60 feet wide and less than 10 feet deep, according to NASA’s analysis of the crater’s shadow.The orbiter’s narrow-angle camera can spot features as small as three feet wide.The images also showed streaks of surface dust and rocks created by the collision. if (!window.cnxel) { window.cnxel = {}; window.cnxel.cmd = []; var iframe = document.createElement('iframe'); iframe.style.display = 'none'; iframe.onload = function() { var iframeDoc = iframe.contentWindow.document; var script = iframeDoc.createElement('script'); script.src = '//cd.elements.video/player.js?cid=62cec241-7d09-4462-afc2-f72f8d8ef40a'; script.setAttribute('defer', '1'); script.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript'); iframeDoc.body.appendChild(script); }; document.head.appendChild(iframe); const preloadResourcesEndpoint = 'https://cds.elements.video/a/preload-resources-ovp.json'; fetch(preloadResourcesEndpoint, { priority: 'low' }) .then(response => { if (!response.ok) { throw new Error('Network response was not ok', preloadResourcesEndpoint); } return response.json(); }) .then(data => { const cssUrl = data.css; const cssUrlLink = document.createElement('link'); cssUrlLink.rel = 'stylesheet'; cssUrlLink.href = cssUrl; cssUrlLink.as = 'style'; cssUrlLink.media = 'print'; cssUrlLink.onload = function() { this.media = 'all'; }; d...