Saturday, August 29, 2026
SpaceX ships recovered Starship home from Christmas Island
SpaceX loaded the intact Flight 13 Starship upper stage, Ship 40, onto the semi-submersible vessel Forte off Christmas Island and began the roughly 20,000 km voyage back to Starbase, Texas, a trip expected to take several weeks. The 52-meter ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean on July 24 and is the first Starship upper stage ever recovered intact after a spaceflight; engineers inspected it in place and collected heat-shield samples before Forte departed on August 28.
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