SpaceX finally recovers its Starship from Indian Ocean
What's the story
SpaceX has successfully salvaged its latest Starship from the Indian Ocean, marking a major milestone in the company's history. The recovery was carried out near Christmas Island and involved towing the upper stage of the 171-foot-tall (52m) spacecraft onto a massive semi-submersible ship. The vessel will now transport the recovered Starship back to SpaceX's base in Texas, a journey that is likely to take several months.
Flight details
The historic splashdown
The Starship upper stage, referred to as Ship, was in the ocean since July 24 after completing its 13th test flight.
The vehicle successfully deployed its payload of 20 next-generation Starlink "Version 3" satellites into space and even managed to relight one of its six Raptor engines in the final frontier.
It then made a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean off Australia's western coast - an unprecedented feat for SpaceX's Starship program.
Recovery efforts
Recovery and inspection
Despite initial setbacks, SpaceX was determined to recover the Flight 13 Ship.
The company towed it to Christmas Island, where engineers inspected the vehicle for several days.
They collected heatshield samples and gained vital insight into how the vehicle handled reentry with improvements now planned on future vehicles.
This data will be key information that could advance the development of Starship, which is designed for full and rapid reusability.
Mission significance
Significance of Starship
Starship is a crucial part of Elon Musk's plan to transport humans and cargo to Mars.
However, before that, it will play a major role in NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon as early as 2028.
The spacecraft was also selected for Jeff Bezos's Blue Moon lander mission.