{"id":420323,"date":"2026-08-29T14:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T14:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420323\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T14:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T14:56:11","slug":"spacexs-recovered-starship-heads-back-to-texas-after-indian-ocean-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420323\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX’s recovered Starship heads back to Texas after Indian Ocean odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Starship<\/a> that’s been floating in the Indian Ocean<\/a> since a July test flight<\/a> from Texas is headed back to Starbase<\/a> on a journey that will take months.<\/p>\n

Crews recently loaded the mega-rocket<\/a> onto the Forte<\/a>, a giant ship that can partially submerge itself to pick up cargo. Forte will haul the stainless-steel rocket back to\u00a0Texas on a trip that’s expected to take “several months,” according to SpaceX<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Images show the 711-foot-long Forte dwarfing the 170-foot-tall Starship. Forte’s estimated arrival to the Port of Brownsville is Oct. 8, according to vessel tracking services.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/p>\n

Starship reaches safe harbor near Christmas Island after weeks at sea<\/a><\/p>\n

The rocket has been near Christmas Island<\/a>, an Australian territory about 220 miles south of Indonesia, for more than a week as crews inspected the craft’s heatshield and awaited Forte.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They collected heatshield samples and gained vital insight into how the vehicle handled reentry with improvements now planned on future vehicles,” SpaceX posted on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rocket survived its splashdown on July 27, and then it drifted or was towed more than 1,050 miles before arriving off Christmas Island where it became a spectacle for locals. \u00a0<\/p>\n

During the trip to Christmas Island, recovery crews faced 30-mph winds and 14-foot seas that threatened the effort<\/a> to bring home the Starship known as “Ship 40.”<\/p>\n

Several vessels – Normand Ranger, Go Australis and Skimmer Tide – helped get Starship to the island. The Australian Space Agency also helped coordinate along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s the first Starship recovered after going to space. SpaceX has said lessons from the space-flown craft will help engineers improve future versions as the company races to meet NASA timelines for Artemis moon missions.<\/p>\n

JOURNEY BEGINS:<\/p>\n

Starship’s ‘lucky number 13’ test flight moves SpaceX closer to moon and Mars<\/a><\/p>\n

SpaceX hasn’t said what it will do with the Starship after it arrives back at Starbase.<\/p>\n

The South Texas space city is building a $14 million Starship Park<\/a> near the rocket factory that will include monuments and an amenities building. Maybe Ship 40’s odyssey will end there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“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 on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/p>\n

There’s more to San Antonio with the Express-News. Subscribe today for just 25\u00a2.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at SpaceX’s recovered Starship heads back to Texas after Indian Ocean odyssey<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Starship that’s been floating in the Indian Ocean since a July test flight from Texas is headed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[146385,146386,2223,2226,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-420323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-christmas-island","tag-indian-ocean","tag-spacex","tag-starship","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}