NASA captures a rare encounter of a spacecraft zipping around the Moon

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has pointed its sensitive instruments at a spacecraft passing by, capturing the below image.

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LRO captured this image of Danuri at about 2.5 miles toward it

The space agency took to its blog on April 5 to showcase some photos captured by the LRO, which has been orbiting the Moon for 15 years now. The satellite captured several images of Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri lunar orbiter, which is the nation's first spacecraft at the Moon. The images were captured last month as both spacecrafts passed each other in opposite directions between March 5 and March 6, 2024.

The relative velocities between the two spacecrafts were about 7,200 miles per hour, making it extremely difficult for NASA teams at its Goddard Space Flight Center to hone in on the Republic of Korea's satellite. Despite the LRO's camera exposure being set to a very short 0.338 milliseconds, the Danuri still appeared smeared in the image and is about 10 times its actual size. This smear was caused by the extremely fast velocities between the two spacecraft.

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Danuri was orbiting 5 miles below LRO's orbit

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A glimpse of Danuri when it was 5 miles below it

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