SpaceX already has back in starbase the first ship Starship that has survived a trip to space and its subsequent landing. Almost three months after taking off, the second stage of the largest rocket ever built, Ship 40 On that flight, it is vertical inside the hangar Megabay 2 of the company in south Texas, along with three other warehouses under construction.
Its return will allow a Starship, the name of both the complete rocket and the second stage, to be examined for the first time after having gone through the extreme conditions of atmospheric reentry. ‘It will provide unprecedented data on the heat shield, Raptor engines, avionics and other elements of a Starship that has flown’SpaceX explained in a publication on X.
The first Starship to return to its launch site, Ship 40’s journey took it across air, space, and sea. Now that it is vertical alongside three other Starships in a Megabay at Starbase, it will provide first-of-its-kind data on a flown Starship heatshield, Raptor engines, avionics, and more.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2026
Ship 40 took off on July 24 on the booster Super Heavy 20 during the program’s thirteenth test flight. The mission followed a suborbital trajectory and included the deployment of 20 satellites Starlink V3 which, as planned, were destroyed upon re-entering the atmosphere after carrying out a series of tests, without remaining in orbit.
After just over an hour of flight, the ship completed its reentry and landed in a controlled manner in the Indian Ocean. While previous Starships had exploded when capsizing over water, this one It floated practically intact..
NEW🚨: SpaceX shares insane drone footage from Starship’s first-ever intact soft splashdown last week https://t.co/OvMVWVtxhY
— Latest in space (@latestinspace) July 28, 2026
SpaceX then organized an operation to tow the spacecraft 52 metersequivalent to the height of a 17-story buildingto calmer waters, a 24-day journey marked by strong waves. The conditions led to Elon Musk to publicly doubt that they could recover it, but in August the teams managed to take it to the vicinity of Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean.
Engineers took advantage of that calmer location to inspect the vehicle and extract several samples of the heat shield that covers its underside. To complete the trip to the United States, they resorted to Forte, a huge semi-submersible ship prepared to transport large loads.
The loading system of this boat allows its deck to be submerged and a structure that is floating in the water to be placed on top. When emptying the ballast tanks, the ship rises again and picks up the cargowhich allowed the Starship to be taken out of the ocean and transported lying down to Texas.
Starship has now been loaded onto a semi-submersible ship to begin the several month journey back to Starbase. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX Recovery team for battling through challenging conditions to give our engineers access to a wealth of data to continue rapidly developing Starship
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 27, 2026
The Forte arrived at the port of Brownsville on October 7, more than two months after launchand the ship continued overland to Starbase. There they attached it to the Megabay 2 bridge cranes, installed on top of the hangar, and They lifted it from its horizontal position until it was vertical again..
Having the vehicle at its facilities will allow SpaceX study its components in detail impossible to achieve solely with images and data sent during the flight. These analyzes will serve to improve future spacecraft and advance toward the program’s goal, which is that both the booster and the upper stage can be quickly recovered and returned to flight.
The company has already recovered three Super Heavy thrusters using the mechanical arms of its launch tower, but has yet to return a Ship to Starbase under its own power. Musk has pointed out that Flight 15, still undated, could include the first attempt to capture the ship with those same armsas long as it meets the necessary conditions for a safe return.