Daily Weird News Report
More than a month after splashing down in the Indian Ocean, a Starship spacecraft is beginning an unusual journey home: aboard a massive ship designed to carry floating cargo.
SpaceX said on Aug. 27 that it had placed the 171-foot (52-meter) upper stage from Starship’s 13th test flight onto a semi-submersible vessel off Christmas Island, an Australian territory about 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) northwest of Broome. The transport ship partially sinks its deck beneath a floating load, then raises the deck with the cargo on board.
The spacecraft, referred to by SpaceX as Ship, landed in the ocean on July 24 after an hour-long suborbital flight from the company’s Starbase site in South Texas. During the mission, it deployed 20 next-generation Starlink Version 3 satellites and successfully relit one of its six Raptor engines in space, according to Space.com’s report.
What made the flight especially significant was Ship’s condition after splashdown. Previous Starship upper stages had either broken apart during atmospheric reentry or exploded soon after hitting the water. This vehicle instead remained intact after landing off the coast of Western Australia.
SpaceX initially towed Ship toward Christmas Island under difficult conditions. The company warned on Aug. 7 that recovery was not going well as the seas became rougher, but the spacecraft was eventually brought to shore. Engineers then inspected it while it continued floating in the waves.
According to SpaceX, the team collected heat-shield samples and obtained information about how the vehicle handled reentry. The company said the findings have already informed improvements planned for future vehicles.
The spacecraft is now headed back to Starbase aboard the semi-submersible hauler. SpaceX expects the voyage to take several months, after which further analysis of the recovered vehicle and its heat shield can take place.
