A satellite from South Korea has captured images of a visible mark on the moon caused by a SpaceX rocket’s collision on Wednesday. The mark, appearing as a smudge that varies in darkness in different photos, was spotted near the Einstein Crater. The Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, also known as Danuri, documented this event with before and after images of the SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage hitting the moon’s surface. The images were taken using the orbiter’s high-resolution Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI) camera.

The SpaceX rocket’s second stage, launched in January 2025, veered off course over the past year after deploying two lunar landers into space. It ended up crashing onto the moon at a speed of approximately 8,700 km/h on Wednesday, an event that had been expected despite being unintentional.

Telescopes on Earth observed the plume of debris generated by the crash even before the images were released, confirming the impact. Danuri, launched in 2022 aboard a SpaceX rocket, has been orbiting 100 kilometers above the moon’s poles since December of that year. Originally slated for a one-year mission, its operational life has been extended until 2027.