By MARCA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX has pulled off its biggest salvage operation yet, recovering its most recently launched Starship from the Indian Ocean.
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Elon Musk’s company is now in the process of shipping Starship back to its home base in Texas, a trip expected to take several months. SpaceX shared pictures of the recovery effort near Christmas Island late this week.
Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket in the world — blasted off July 24 from Starbase, Texas. It was the 13th test flight of a full-up Starship, but unlike all the others, it survived the hourlong space-skimming flight and remained floating and intact.
This image provided by SpaceX on Aug. 27, 2026, shows Starship loaded onto a semisubmersible ship to begin the several-month journey back to Starbase. (SpaceX via AP)
This image provided by SpaceX on Aug. 27, 2026, shows engineers inspecting Starship off the coast of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, following its launch on a test flight back in July. (SpaceX via AP)
This image provided by SpaceX on Aug. 27, 2026, shows engineers inspecting Starship off the coast of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, following its launch on a test flight back in July. (SpaceX via AP)
“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 company said via X.
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Starship is how Musk intends to get people and equipment to Mars, where he hopes to build a city. First up, though, is the moon. NASA is counting on Starship as well as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Moon lander to return astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2028.
President Donald Trump endorsed both destinations during a visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday. He presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to each of the four Artemis II astronauts who flew around the moon in April.
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