More than a month after its test launch, the second stage of the Starship rocket is about to return to the United States. SpaceX declare Today it loaded the 52-meter-long Starship onto a huge semi-submersible transport vessel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Christmas Island.
Image source: SpaceX
The upper stage of SpaceX’s Super Heavy rocket has been floating in the Indian Ocean since splashing down on July 24 after the 13th test launch of the Starship program. Now it’s heading back to the SpaceX Starbase in South Texas. According to the company, the journey will take several months.
The thirteenth test launch of Starship was quite successful. The ship is scheduled to deliver the payload of 20 large next-generation Starlink V3 satellites into space and is also capable of restarting one of the six Raptor engines in space.
The upper stage then sank gently into the waters of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. The starship sustained almost no damage during the splashdown. In all previous launches, the craft either collapsed upon entering Earth’s atmosphere or exploded shortly after splashdown, falling sideways into the water. The landing of the first stage of the starship “Super Heavy” is not going well. While attempting a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, she encountered problems with her propulsion system before the accelerator hit the water hard.
SpaceX decided to use this unprecedented event to better study the technological status of its superior stage after splashdown. According to the company, a thorough examination of the ship will reveal how its heat shield survived flight and re-entry. This is a key message for further development of SpaceX’s Super Heavy rocket system, which is designed to be fully reusable.
Initially, attempts to tow the starship to the upper levels seemed destined to fail. However, SpaceX persisted and successfully towed the ship to Christmas Island, an Australian territory about 1,900 kilometers northwest of Broome. According to SpaceX, upon arrival, company engineers spent several days checking how the ship floated in the waves and collected valuable data.
«They collected heat shield samples and gained important information about how the spacecraft survived re-entry. The results obtained will be taken into account when improving future ships“SpaceX reported on X today, releasing several photos of the work being done.
Starship has now been loaded onto the semi-submersible transport vessel. Such ships are able to submerge the cargo deck underwater, place large floating objects on top of it, and then raise the deck above the water again. Once the spacecraft arrives in Texas, the starship will undergo further study.
«Congratulations to the entire SpaceX Recovery team for overcoming challenging conditions and providing our engineers with rich data to continue the rapid development of Starship»,— Wrote SpaceX.
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