SpaceX rocket hit the moon: Before and after pics

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Space SpaceX rocket hit the moon: Before and after pics

Posted by

Kelly Kizer Whitt

and

Deborah Byrd

and

August 6, 2026

This video from the Korean Aerospace Administration shows before and after images of where the SpaceX rocket hit the moon. Look closely as the images zoom in. Can you see a dark streak that wasn’t there before? Video via KASA.

SpaceX rocket before and after pics

Update, 18 UTC August 6: The Korean Aerospace Administration (KASA) has released a video showing the lunar surface before and after the SpaceX rocket impact. It’s subtle but observable. Watch in the player above. The translated caption reads:

The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA; Administrator Oh Tae-seok) announced that South Korea’s lunar orbiter, Danuri (KPLO*), captured images of the upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket before and after its impact with the lunar surface, which occurred at 15:34 (KST) on August 5 (Wednesday). The observation process involved a total of eight imaging sessions – starting with an initial shot at 15:01 (approximately 30 minutes prior to impact) and followed by seven subsequent sessions after the impact – with all operations concluded by around 07:00 on August 6 (Thursday).

We’ll continue to update this story and add new images and observations as they become available. Stay tuned!

Wednesday’s update

Update, 18 UTC August 5: The European Southern Observatory reports that it has detected sodium and lithium in the debris plume. ESO posted to LinkedIn:

Earlier today, the discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket impacted on the moon …

As part of this coordinated observing campaign, our VLT [Very Large Telescope] detected spectral lines (the ‘chemical fingerprints’) of sodium and lithium gas in the impact plume lasting for 5-10 minutes after impact. The temporal sequence of spectra is shown in the clip here.

The sodium likely originated from the lunar soil, whereas the lithium could come from the rocket itself.

The team will provide more details after a full analysis has been conducted.

This is the spot where astronomers predicted a Falcon 9 upper stage rocket body would collide with the moon on August 5, 2026, at 5,400 miles per hour (8,700 kph). Image via Bill Gray. Used with permission.<br>Falcon 9 rocket expected to hit the moon on August 5

In January 2025, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched two missions toward the moon. One was the Blue Ghost mission that went on to spend 14 days on the lunar surface. And the other was Hakuto-R, a private Japanese mission, which was meant to land on the moon, but failed. After the upper stage of the Falcon 9 completed its own mission to boost these two moonward, it became just another piece of space junk. But now the Falcon 9 rocket is going to the moon, too, to collide with it on August 5.

Current estimates are that the Falcon 9 upper stage will hit the moon at 6:35 UTC (1:35 a.m. CDT) on August 5, 2026. When it hits, it should send a huge cloud of dusty lunar soil a few miles into space above the impact site.

The rocket will strike near Einstein crater, close to the moon’s limb (edge) as seen from Earth. That crater is close to the moon’s western limb in lunar coordinates.

Gray estimates the space junk will hit the moon at about 1.51 miles (2.43 kilometers) a second. That equates to 5,400 miles (8,700 kilometers) an hour. Because the moon has no real atmosphere, there will be nothing to slow it down.

Will we be able to see the strike? Read on.

William Jo of the University of Texas at Austin shared this animation. It shows the height the ejecta plume could reach according to his new study. Image via William Jo/ UT Austin. Used with permission.<br>Will earthly observers see the strike?

The impact is unlikely to be visible from Earth with the unaided eye. However, space-based telescopes — and possibly some observatories in the Americas — could detect it. At that time, it will be nighttime across much of the Americas and the moon’s position in the sky will allow observatories in the region to monitor the impact. A recent paper said:

Potential observables from this event include the flash at the time of impact (likely lasting less than a second) and the ejecta plume (lasting minutes to tens of minutes).

Whether you’ll actually see anything from the Falcon 9 strike depends on several factors:

Timing . The impact is predicted to occur at about 6:35 UTC (1:35 a.m. CDT) on August 5, although the predicted time could shift slightly as the trajectory is...