Elon Musk says Starship Flight 13 recovery ‘not looking good’ despite successful splashdown
SpaceX‘s attempt to recover its Flight 13 Starship from the Indian Ocean is facing fresh challenges, with CEO Elon Musk saying the recovery effort is “not looking good right now” because of rough sea conditions. The update comes days after the spacecraft made SpaceX’s most successful Starship splashdown to date and remained floating in the ocean for recovery. In a recent post on X, SpaceX said its recovery team is continuing efforts to bring the 52-metre-long Starship to port despite “challenging conditions and increasingly rough seas.”Replying to the post, Elon Musk wrote: “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.”
Flight 13 marked Starship’s best test yet
Flight 13 launched from SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas in late July and is widely seen as the company’s most successful Starship mission so far. The rocket deployed 20 next-generation Starlink satellites before the upper-stage spacecraft performed a controlled re-entry and soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, remaining largely intact and afloat after landing.Unlike previous Starship test flights that ended with the vehicle breaking apart or sinking quickly, Flight 13 gave SpaceX a rare opportunity to inspect the spacecraft after re-entry and gather valuable engineering data.
Starship rocket recovery may fail, but data has already been collected
Although Elon Musk indicated that bringing the spacecraft back to shore now appears unlikely, he said engineers were still able to collect detailed images of key parts of the vehicle, including the heat shield and Raptor engines. Those images are expected to help SpaceX improve future Starship designs as the company works toward making the rocket fully reusable.The recovery effort has involved multiple vessels attempting to tow the spacecraft through rough seas toward Australia, but maritime experts have noted that recovering such a large vehicle from open water is technically difficult.
