SpaceX transports recovered Starship upper stage to Texas after Indian Ocean retrieval
SpaceX has brought the upper section of its Starship rocket, recovered from the Indian Ocean, to the Port of Brownsville, Texas, where it will be examined for future design improvements.
SpaceX successfully returned the upper stage of its Starship vehicle, designated Ship 40, to the Port of Brownsville in Texas after recovering it from the Indian Ocean near Australia. The component was part of the company's 13th flight test, which launched from Starbase in Cameron County on July 24. After the Super Heavy booster performed a water landing off the Texas Gulf Coast, the upper stage continued on a sub-orbital trajectory before executing a soft water landing in the Indian Ocean on August 18.
The vehicle was retrieved at Christmas Island and then shipped back to Texas, arriving on October 7. Although prolonged exposure to saltwater likely precludes the stage from being reused, SpaceX plans to study the hardware to inform future Starship designs intended for lunar and Martian missions. The arrival coincided with the recent achievement of Starship reaching orbit on its 14th flight test on September 28.
SpaceX is also developing a lunar lander variant of Starship for NASA's Artemis program and continues to work toward its long-term goal of crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.