SpaceX recovers spacecraft fragments off Australian coast

Starship’s most recent test flight failed to detect any further booster capture, but the rocket’s upper stage dove gracefully into the Indian Ocean. SpaceX recently fished out the remains of the upper stage of its Starship rocket from the water and recovered pieces of hardware to inform its upcoming test flights.

After launching Starship on November 19 for its sixth integrated flight test, SpaceX towed Starship’s upper stage back to port on the coast of Western Australia. In addition, SpaceX employees traveled to the Gascoyne region of Australia to collect debris from the rocket’s splash site, including various tanks, heat-resistant fairings and other metal parts that were scooped out of the water and collected in bags at the port, according to a video from Interstellar Gateway.

Interstellar Gateway, a content creator specializing in SpaceX news and updates, analyzed ship movement data from all ports in Western Australia to identify the SpaceX ship tasked with towing the rocket’s upper stage.

“This was the first flight where we saw a ship specifically equipped for towing… which led us to realize that they may be attempting to return the spacecraft to port,” Interstellar Gateway told Gizmodo in a statement Email with and pointed out that all previous operations in the past spacecraft flights focused solely on the use of buoy cameras to record the water splashes. “During our inspection during port operations, we noted all of the necessary lines and rigging materials required to retract the spacecraft, as well as a staging area prepared with a crane to retrieve the spacecraft from the water.”

In early October, Starship completed its groundbreaking fifth test flight. For the first time, the rocket’s 230-foot-tall Super Heavy booster gently lowered toward the tower, which caught the rocket with its outstretched mechanical arms like a giant pair of chopsticks.

Starship’s latest suborbital launch was supposed to involve the Super Heavy booster being intercepted by the massive Mechazilla turret after re-entry. However, about four minutes after launch, SpaceX declared that the booster catch was a no-go. Instead, the launch vehicle made a soft, waterlogged landing off the Texas coast because not all of the criteria for a catch were met. Meanwhile, the spacecraft’s upper stage successfully survived re-entry and conducted a controlled, gentle water outflow into the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX is currently preparing for the rocket’s seventh test flight and hopes to build on previous launches. The company works on an iterative improvement model and therefore wants to collect and examine hardware from its test flights.

“SpaceX can only obtain a limited amount of data from Starship via StarLink transmissions because it always sank shortly after the water crash,” Interstellar Gateway explained. “Similar to the valuable data used by the first captured and intact booster, there are a host of structural and out-of-sight errors that can be found by an intact spacecraft returning to land.”

One of the key things SpaceX wants to explore using physical hardware is Starship’s ability to withstand the heat of reentry. “The main problem is the spacecraft’s heat shield,” said Interstellar Gateway. “Although there are numerous sensors monitoring the test tiles and raw areas, physical tiles that can withstand re-entry are critical to improving the overall heat shield.”

Starship has come a long way since its first launch ended in a mid-air explosion, while SpaceX is getting closer to seeing its mega rocket fly more regularly.