AssetID: 55928754
Headline: Elon Musk's Starship spacecraft arrives at Christmas Island after splashing down in Indian Ocean
Caption: BY MARK WORGAN SpaceX has retrieved its Starship spacecraft from the Indian Ocean, towing it to the Australian territory of Christmas Island. The company is now preparing to carry out further analysis of the craft after it survived its splashdown largely intact. The vehicle's 13th test flight ended on 24 July. Engineers had expected the spacecraft to break apart after tipping over in the water, as previous Starships had done following splashdowns. Instead, the vehicle survived, providing SpaceX with a rare opportunity to inspect hardware that had returned from space. “After approx. 24 days at sea, the SpaceX Recovery team successfully guided Starship to a location just off the coast of Christmas Island,” a statement from SpaceX said. “A team of SpaceX engineers is on their way to conduct additional analysis on the vehicle in calmer waters before attempting to return it to Starbase.” During previous test flights, onboard sensors and cameras, together with buoys and drones positioned near the splashdown zone, have gathered data on the performance of Starship's heat shield. The spacecraft's destruction after landing was accepted as part of the test programme because the vehicles were not designed to be recovered. SpaceX recovers and reuses the first stages of its Falcon 9 rockets, although the rocket's single-use upper stage is not normally recovered. Starship, which is more than 170ft (52m) long and 30ft (9m) in diameter, is too large to be transported intact by air. SpaceX has not explained how it plans to return the vehicle to Starbase in South Texas, which is more than 10,000 miles from Christmas Island. Any return journey would have to be made by sea, and the recovered spacecraft will not fly again. The seawater has exposed its engines, stainless-steel structure, and sensitive electronics to corrosive salt water, while the vehicle was also damaged when it tipped over after splashdown. Elon Musk’s firm’s longer-term aim is to recover future Starships directly at the launch site using mechanical arms mounted on the launch tower to catch the vehicle during its descent.
Keywords: feature,video,spacex,space,starship,photo
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