SpaceX
SpaceX said Ship 40 is loaded onto a semi-submersible for a several-month trip back to Starbase, after engineers spent several days inspecting the Flight 13 ship in the waters off Christmas Island.
SpaceX
The company posted that the team collected heatshield samples and gained vital insight into how the vehicle handled reentry, with improvements now planned on future vehicles. A follow-up post said the recovery crew battled challenging conditions to give engineers that data.
Christmas Island photos from August 26 show Ship 40 on the deck of the semi-submersible Forte after the carrier ballasted down, slid under the ship, and rose with it. SpaceX did not name the vessel in its posts. The company only said the crossing back to Starbase will take several months.
Ship 40 is the 171-foot upper stage from Starship Flight 13 on July 24, the first Starship to make an intact ocean splashdown. SpaceX later towed it to Christmas Island after 24 days afloat in the Indian Ocean so the hardware could be inspected in calmer water, after Elon Musk said recovery was not looking good in rough seas.
The new official photos show crew on the hull and a small boat alongside the scorched tiles, then the ship sitting between the wing walls of the semi-submersible in a Christmas Island bay.
Getting Ship 40 home matters because the heatshield samples are the point of keeping the first intact splashdown. Those are what SpaceX said will shape the next ships.
