NASA: SpaceX rocket crash made basketball court-size moon crater

The stray SpaceX rocket that crashed into the moon about two weeks ago created a fresh crater wider than an NBA basketball court and up to 10 feet deep, NASA says.

The measurements come from the space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which circles the moon from pole to pole every two hours.

But getting images and data of the impact, which happened on Aug.

5, took six days because the spacecraft had to wait for the hole to slowly rotate back into view as the lunar surface turned beneath it.

NASA wanted these images to hone its ability to pinpoint fast-moving objects that slam into the moon — a dress rehearsal that could help protect future astronaut crews by improving how quickly and accurately it can track impact risks .

SEE ALSO: Bright planets can blind the Webb telescope.

A fix is coming.

The rocket made moonfall near Einstein Crater , close to the boundary between the lunar near and far sides.

Getting the images was a bit of a threading-the-needle exercise.

Engineers tilted the orbiter so its camera pointed at the predicted zone each time it passed overhead, while the spacecraft raced along at about a mile per second.

"If the camera snapped even 10 seconds too early or too late, the target would drift off-center by 10 miles," according to the agency .

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The roughly four-ton Falcon 9 upper stage hit the moon after spending more than a year wandering through space.