溅落后完整存活的 Ship 40 已运回星基地，将提供首份实飞隔热盾数据

The Starship second stage of SpaceX’s Integrated Flight Test-13 is back at Starbase, TX after surprisingly surviving splashdown in the Indian Ocean in July. To date, it is the only Starship not to explode after reaching the water and tipping over, with residual fuel usually causing an explosion. SpaceX was delighted to get post-recovery data especially about performance of the tiles, but returning it to Texas was no easy task. Meanwhile, the FAA is opening a public comment period on SpaceX’s request to significantly increase the number of launches and landings at Starbase.

Integrated Flight Test-13 or IFT-13 lifted off from Starbase at 6:51 pm ET on July 25. The first stage, Super Heavy or “Booster”, detached as planned about 2.5 minutes into flight as the engines on the second stage, Starship or “Ship,” ignited to make the approximately 65 minute journey to the Indian Ocean. Although the Booster made a hard landing instead of a soft landing in the Gulf, the rest of the flight went as planned until the final moments when Ship settled down on the ocean waves.  In every other case, the Ship tips over and explodes, but this time it remained intact.

That was great news for SpaceX engineers eager to study how Ship endured the trip through space and reentry, but maneuvering it to a safe haven where it could be put aboard a barge for return to Texas was challenging. SpaceX posted a video, Holy Grail of Rocketry, showing the Herculean effort entailed in wrangling it ultimately to Christmas Island.

Ship 40 still needed to get from Christmas Island back to Starbase, near Brownsville, TX, and arrived yesterday. SpaceX posted a video and images after it was in one of the Megabays. SpaceX said “it will provide first-of-its-kind data on a flown Starship heatshield, Raptor engines, avionics, and more.”

Starship, a name often applied to both the first and second stages, is designed to be reusable and SpaceX plans to recover both stages back at their launch sites. SpaceX already recovered three Booster first stages at Starbase, but the most recent was IFT-8 in March 2025.  The first Ship “catch” could happen on the next flight, IFT-15.

Starbase is the only operational Starship launch site now, but the company is close to activating a second site at Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Another launch site at the adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is under construction and Elon Musk recently announced plans to build another set of launch pads in Louisiana.

Musk anticipates thousands of Starship launches per year. The FAA regulates commercial space launches and reentries and is filing a Notice of Intent to prepare an environmental assessment allowing SpaceX to increase the launch rate just at Starbase to 456 launches and 912 landings (456 Boosters, 456 Ships) per year. Four in-person public scoping meetings will take place on November 17 and 19, 2026 and a virtual public scoping meeting on November 18.  Comments must be submitted by November 30.

Last Updated: Oct 13, 2026 8:42 pm ET