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Posted on 08/05/2026 10:06:05 AM PDT by citizen
Space exploration enthusiasts have been tracking the unprecedented 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 fully integrated test flight the 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
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If recovered intact, a wealth of flight & ship data awaits.
The pictures were posted on X yesterday. CNN Fox, etc are all running days behind and don’t cover important things at all (media bias). Fox is getting much worse.
It’s making 3kn towards AUS.
You can track it via AIS if you out the ship names in and have a membership for real time data or it’s 12-24 hours behind for the free stuff at 3in they should make AUS 15/8/26
Sal Marcogliano X post about this from yesterday.
https://x.com/mercoglianos/status/2084672671409647640?s=20
Has info and also links to his YouTube on this topic.
Sal is always worth paying attention to on maritime / shipping issues. He came to my attention during the Key Bridge fiasco. He was about the only regular source of good information.
What is the meltdown value of that hull?
I saw part of a video from a sea salvage & towing specialist, saying 3km/hr was all they could make because of the wave & tow actions on the hull. Especially as the ship hull is rather thin and engineered for vertical stress.
I didn’t think they’d even try it. The remaining fuel must have boiled out or degraded or some such.
Less than the tow op costs :) Call the scrap yard!
That’s the video I was watching a couple days ago. Sounds knowledgeable on sea salvage.
Isn't Starship mostly stainless steel? Pretty worthless.
There is no one more knowledgeable publicly commenting.
Elon Musk posted 50 times on X today (08/05/26)
Jacob & Isaac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8K6i93s7bI
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