Scores of space exploration enthusiasts have been tracking the journey of SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype, which wound up floating in the Indian Ocean after the company’s latest test flight. Now, satellites have captured mind-bending images of boats working to haul the rocket back to shore.
The saga of Ship 40 — as this specific Starship prototype is called — began on July 24 with the launch of SpaceX’s 13th test flight of a fully integrated Starship rocket system, which includes the upper spacecraft, or “Ship,” as well as the Super Heavy rocket booster, the bottommost part of the rocket that fires the Ship off the launchpad and toward space.
SpaceX has been hashing out how to return the upper spacecraft to a controlled landing after flight — a feat that is crucial to the company’s plans to eventually recover and rapidly reuse the vehicles, which could drastically drive down launch costs.
SpaceX did not expect to recover Ship 40.
But during the July test flight, the vehicle showed marked improvement over its predecessors by retaining the function of all six of its engines, maintaining control throughout the violent process of reentering Earth’s atmosphere, and making its “softest” splashdown yet at its target landing site in the ocean, according to SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot. The splashdown was a “dream scenario,” Huot said on SpaceX’s livestream of the test flight.
