Ship 40, the first Starship to survive splashdown, is back upright at Starbase
SpaceX returned Ship 40—the Starship upper stage from Flight 13—to Starbase and stood it upright in Megabay, giving engineers a first look at a flown heatshield, Raptors and avionics after a months-long sea recovery.
Photo: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza / U.S. Department of War via Wikimedia Commons (public domain; file photo of a Starship in Starbase Megabay 2, January 2026)
Space.com reported on October 14 that Ship 40, the Starship upper stage that flew on Flight 13 and became the first to survive an ocean splashdown largely intact, has completed its journey back to Starbase and been lifted upright inside the Megabay hangar alongside other ships under assembly.
Ship 40 launched atop Super Heavy Booster 20 on July 24 and ended a suborbital flight with a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Unlike earlier ships that exploded after tipping over, it stayed afloat, prompting a recovery that included a 24-day tow through rough seas to waters off Australia's Christmas Island, where engineers inspected the vehicle and collected heat-shield samples, Space.com said.
The stage was then loaded onto the semi-submersible transport ship Forte, which arrived at the Port of Brownsville on October 7. SpaceX trucked Ship 40 over land to Starbase, stood it vertical and moved it into Megabay. In an October 13 post on X quoted by Space.com, SpaceX said the return "will provide first-of-its-kind data on a flown Starship heatshield, Raptor engines, avionics, and more."
SpaceX has recovered Super Heavy boosters with the launch tower's mechanical arms but has not yet returned a Ship upper stage to the pad under its own power. Space.com noted that Ship 41 flew orbital Flight 14 before 40's return and did not survive its Pacific splashdown, and that Elon Musk has said Flight 15 could attempt the first tower catch of a Ship if conditions allow.