SpaceX has recovered its Starship launch vehicle from the Indian Ocean as part of its biggest salvage mission yet. The company will now ship the rocket back to its home base in Texas, a trip that will take several months. SpaceX shared photos of the recovery near Christmas Island last week.
13th test flight
Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket in the world and began its operation at Starbase, Texas, on July 24. The flight was the 13th test flight of a fully loaded Starship, but it was the only one to make it through the space-skimming flight and kept on floating while remaining intact.
In a post shared to X/Twitter, the company said: "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."
Mars and moon plans
Starship's recovery was part of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's long-term plan to get people to Mars, where he hopes to build a city - he has since scaled back to expressing a desire to send humans back to the moon, instead. US President Donald Trump endorsed both destinations during a visit to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday.
He went on to present the Congressional Space Medal of Honour to each of the four Artemis II astronauts who flew around the moon back in April. Before giving out the medals, Trump announced a new US "space academy" to train civilian and military recruits for operations in orbit.
US Space Academy
As he signed a new executive order, Trump said: "It's called the US Space Academy. That's a big deal. It'll serve both the United States Space Force as well as NASA and the civilian spaceflight industry, and it'll attract, train, and graduate the very best of our nation."
During his visit, Trump joined a call to American astronauts currently on the International Space Station. Officials said it was the first time a sitting president had called the station from Mission Control. During the call, Trump congratulated the crew, saying he admired their bravery.
"I wouldn't do it. I will tell you right now, I hate to admit it. But some people love it more than anything. And you have amazing courage," he told crew members. They spoke about their time on the station, telling the president of their preparations for an upcoming spacewalk. Trump also extended an invite to the White House when they return to Earth, saying: "We'll see you in the Oval Office, OK?"
Reusable launch system
The Starship rocket is the successor to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets that is part of the SpaceX broader reusable launch system. SpaceX is planning to use Starship to launch the next generation of satellites for the company's starlink system to deliver high speed internet to more countries.
Designed to carry more than 100 metric tonnes, Starship will also be able to carry up to 100 people on "long-duration, interplanetary flights", according to SpaceX. Working in tandem, Starship and the Super Heavy rocket are designed to return to their launch site where they can be caught following their flight. Once back on Earth, they have been designed to rapidly turn around and launch once again without refurbishment.
