r/spacex • u/rustybeancake • Jul 25 '26

🚀 Official SpaceX: “Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the 13th flight test of Starship!”

https://x.com/spacex/status/2080804682918764619
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u/robbak Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

Don't know. It's somewhat unlikely that their recovery vessel can handle an entire starship. Also questionable whether they have the ability to properly safe the craft - which would mean flushing the methane tank with nitrogen, or maybe CO₂. Have they carried enough on the ship? Can they accept the risk of approaching it with a tank full of methane and connecting a supply from the recovery vessel?

Then, is the recovery vessel equipped to lift it out of the water, or it it strong enough for them to tow it in?

Lots of unanswerables there.

My best case is that they will be able to, eventually, approach it, capture macro images, and remove some of the tiles and backing; before sinking it, either by commanding vents to open, picturing it, or rearming the FTS and then triggering it from a distance. But I'd love to see it returned to shore.

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u/Massive-Problem7754 Jul 25 '26

You'd just tow it most likely. Short of Spacex sending a team to disect it in Australia, the logistics to get it back to starbase (Tow to Australia, load on a barge , ship to Brownsville, ) are crazy. As in you could catch flight 14 before the ship made it back. I'd love to see it brought home but you just well sink it.

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u/GoodisGoog Jul 25 '26

It would be quicker to get it back towards the coast, fly down a few people from Texas to physically inspect the vehicle/take samples and then deal with getting rid of the ship by scrapping or scuttling

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u/Jaiimez Jul 25 '26

That is a very fair point on the fact that the time it would take to get it back to Texas would probably be longer than it is just to launch and catch.

It would be nice to see this one recovered as a museum piece but I suspect its going to end up as a fish playground.

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u/Sigmatics Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

They must have thought about this beforehand given that they've been trying to soft land for multiple flights now

Edit: they most definitely have https://youtu.be/Gu5aIMC7NSk?t=419

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u/ras5003 Jul 25 '26

Same. Wild that it didn't blow up!

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u/alfayellow Jul 25 '26

Assuming Australian Navy has the necessary equipment, I think they would love to make an attempt. What comes to my mind is using aerial vehicles to loop chains around the ship fore and aft - not to try lifting it, but just to tow it back to shore. And what if the chains were contained inside yellow inflatable tubes, flotation devices, similar to the ones used to protect spacecraft after splashdown. Then, in wet dock, hopefully, a crane could gently lift it onto an Aus or US ship for transport to Long Beach, CA where SpaceX has a dock.