Starship 40 Faces Months-Long Return Trip to Texas After Ocean Recovery
SpaceX’s Starship 40, a suborbital test vehicle that deployed 20 Starlink satellites, survived splashdown and spent 24 days at sea before being lifted from the Indian Ocean onto the transport Forte for a months-long voyage back to Port of Brownsville, Texas. Engineers will study heat-shield samples to inform future Starship designs, as SpaceX aims to eventually return missions to Starbase Texas rather than relying on ocean recoveries.