The crater formed by the impact of a SpaceX rocket on the Moon was removed by the orbiter

The Korean lunar orbiter Danuri recorded a crater that appeared during the fall of the upper stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle from SpaceX. This was announced on August 6 at the Institute of Aerospace Research of the Republic of Korea (KARI).

"Danuri received images both before and immediately after the collision, which allows it to analyze changes caused solely by the impact and provides important research data," KARI said in a statement on the social network X (ex. Twitter).

According to the institute, the collision occurred on August 5 at 06:34 GMT (09:34 GMT). The mass of the stage was about 4 thousand kg, the impact velocity reached about 8.7 thousand km / h, and the resulting crater can have a diameter of up to 27 m. Danuri began observations half an hour before the incident and conducted eight filming sessions, flying over the crash site several times, the article notes.

The images show changes in terrain and traces of discarded soil. The data obtained will be compared with observations of the American Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter probe in the framework of international cooperation.

Moon down: the fall of the Falcon 9 stage was caused by flaws in the preparation of the mission

How will an unplanned event help improve the safety of new expeditions

On August 6, NASA and the European Southern Observatory confirmed the fall of the upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the Moon. In this case, the incident is considered unintentional. NASA researcher Kelsey Yang noted that the incident will help scientists study similar phenomena.

At the same time, Nathan Eismant, a leading researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia on August 5 that the sudden collision of objects with the Moon is not something unique and does not pose a danger to earthlings. The scientist stressed that similar cases have already occurred in the history of cosmonautics.