In a show of space surveillance strength, a newly launched Chinese satellite tracked a piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashing into the moon and captured footage of its impact.
No visible plume can be seen in the images that appear to show the moment of impact, which is consistent with what other scientists and telescopes reported immediately after the rocket debris struck on Wednesday.
China’s Gande-1 01 space debris monitoring satellite, launched on July 24, carried out the tracking. It is the country’s first satellite of its kind, and part of a planned monitoring constellation expected to be completed by 2030.
The monitoring provided not only a record of the impact, but also a “proof of ability” for the technology, according to the satellite’s developer, Beijing-based aerospace company ATmoto Technology, also known as Aotian Technology.
“The impact of the Falcon 9 upper-stage debris on the moon was an ‘unplanned’ space event, but it became an excellent window to test the operational capabilities of the space-based situational awareness system,” the company said in a social media post on Wednesday.
An upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket – around the size of a bus – crashed onto the moon near the Einstein crater, on the edge of the side visible from Earth.