SpaceX's Ship 40 is finally on its way home after more than a month at sea

SpaceX has shared the latest update on Starship Ship 40, which has been afloat in the Indian Ocean since its splashdown on July 24. On August 27, the company shared that the ship is now heading home at last. Engineers have completed their in-water inspection of Ship 40 near Christmas Island and collected samples of heatshield tiles, as well as detailed data on how the vehicle performed during reentry. 

SpaceX also noted that they have already identified improvements that they plan to implement on future ships. Sharing the update on X, the company tweeted, “SpaceX engineers spent several days inspecting Ship 40 in the waters off Christmas Island. They collected heatshield samples and gained vital insight into how the vehicle handled reentry, with improvements now planned on future vehicles.”

“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,” the tweet further added. 

How did they get it out of the water?

The recovery of the 52-meter spacecraft was done with the help of Boskalis' semi-submersible vessel Forte. This ship is designed in a way that it can sink its own deck partially into the water so heavy cargo can float aboard. This is how Ship 40 was carried out of the water. The ship is now loaded onto Forte for the trip back to Starbase in Texas. This journey can take several weeks to several months at sea.

Getting Ship 40 home was not an easy task. On August 7, Elon Musk posted on X that things looked grim for the ship: "Unfortunately, ship recovery is not looking good right now. Nonetheless, we were able to obtain close-up photos of critical regions of the heat shield and engines for future upgrades." SpaceX also noted that the recovery team was still fighting rough seas near Christmas Island to guide the 52-meter spacecraft toward port in the first week of August. 

What's next for Ship 40?

Once Ship 40 is back on land, SpaceX will run a fuller inspection. In another update, SpaceX also shared that Flight 14 could launch as soon as this month, with the aim of reaching a Starlink V3 constellation of around 100,000 satellites. For this, the company moved its “Booster 21 to the pad at Starbase for static fire testing ahead of Flight 14,” as posted on X on August 26, 2026. 

SpaceX has also shared its plan to build a Starbase in Louisiana, which will be a "high-cadence launch site that will enable Starship to open a pathway to the stars for humanity," as per SpaceX. Commenting on this, Elon Musk noted, "Starbase Louisiana will ultimately have over a dozen launch towers, enabling more than 30 Starship flights per day and making it the biggest launch site on Earth! SpaceX makes sci-fi real." 

More on Starlust

SpaceX and Nvidia join hands for the orbital launch of a space-optimized AI system

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope: SpaceX shares glimpse of Falcon Heavy at the hangar ahead of August 30 launch