SpaceX Races to Recover Intact Starship From Indian Ocean

SpaceX is racing to recover part of its Starship rocket after a historic landing in the Indian Ocean. Here is the latest information on this quest, as well as how Mother Nature is presenting significant challenges.

Recovery of SpaceX Rocket Not Promising

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is not hopeful that his spaceflight company will be able to fully recover the upper stage of its flagship Starship rocket. Musk said that the attempt is "not looking good" despite the initial optimism.

It has been a long journey for flight 13, culminating recently with a triumphant landing in the Indian Ocean. The 171-foot-tall part of the rocket known as the upper stage landed in this corner of the world's ocean intact, marking a significant accomplishment for SpaceX as it continues to tweak the rocket for future crewed missions into space.

While there was great optimism that SpaceX would be able to recover the upper stage after the successful landing at sea, inclement weather conditions and the inherently dangerous nature of the ocean have stymied operations.

SpaceX launched the megarocket from Texas on July 24. The latest prototype rises 407 feet when it is fully stacked. The rocket was powered by a 235-foot booster known as Super Heavy. This booster landed in the water off the coast of Texas shortly after the stage separation, just a few minutes later. Meanwhile, the upper stage portion of the rocket continued its journey into suborbital space.

During its weeks-long journey, the spacecraft achieved a number of its goals. This includes the deployment of the operational Starlink satellites.

SpaceX leaders are admittedly pleasantly surprised that the upper-stage survived the one-hour flight after it hit the Indian Ocean. This accomplishment was a major first step for the company as it keeps tweaking the rocket to be reused in the future.

However, this optimism had diminished in the weeks since, as SpaceX teams work to bring the rocket back to the coastline of Australia. The rough seas in this part of the Indian Ocean have presented challenging conditions for workers trying to recover the upper stage.

While the exposure to the corrosive saltwater would have made the upper stage unusable on subsequent missions, SpaceX wanted to recover the metal for data gathering and analysis. Musk said that his staff was "able to obtain close-up photos of critical regions of the heat shield and engines for future upgrades."

The promising news emerging from this mission is that the upper stage survived the controlled landing into the water. SpaceX has been able to successfully reuse the lower stage boosters outfitted on the smaller Falcon 9 rocket. The company has also reused a Super Heavy booster. However, the reuse of the upper stage portion of the spacecraft has proven to be a difficult endeavor.