SpaceX’s Starship Recovery Runs Into Trouble in Rough Seas

SpaceX has spent two weeks trying to turn one of Starship’s strangest test-flight endings into something even more valuable: bringing a full-size spacecraft back to port.

That effort is now in real trouble.

The company says worsening conditions in the Indian Ocean are battering the recovery operation as crews attempt to guide the 52-meter Starship upper stage toward shore.

SpaceX shared video and photographs from the operation Friday, showing just how unusual this mission became after splashdown.

The SpaceX Recovery team is still working to recover Flight 13’s Starship from the Indian Ocean. They’ve been overcoming challenging conditions and increasingly rough seas as they attempt to guide the 52m long spacecraft to port pic.twitter.com/ECT5FyCvr7

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 7, 2026

Space.com reports that Flight 13’s Ship remained intact after its July 24 landing and was being towed through waters off Western Australia. The upper stage had tipped over after its landing burn, but it stayed afloat—an outcome no previous Starship test had delivered.

The recovery team tried to capitalize on that surprise by moving the 171-foot spacecraft toward port for a closer engineering inspection. That meant controlling an enormous unpowered steel vehicle in open water while seas continued to build around it.

The same report notes that Starship stands about 408 feet tall when Ship is stacked on its Super Heavy booster. Recovering the upper stage from a remote ocean splashdown was never part of a routine marine salvage operation.

Elon Musk then gave the recovery effort a blunt assessment. He also made clear that the mission had already returned engineering value even if the vehicle never reaches land.

Unfortunately, ship recovery is not looking good right now.

Nonetheless, we were able to obtain close-up photos of critical regions of the heat shield and engines for future upgrades.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2026

Those close-up images may be the most important consolation prize.

Starship’s stainless-steel skin, heat-shield tiles and six Raptor engines went through launch, spaceflight, reentry, a landing burn, impact with the water and nearly two weeks at sea. Photographs taken after that sequence can expose damage patterns that onboard telemetry cannot fully explain.

The Associated Press reported that Flight 13 launched from Starbase on July 24 and deployed 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites before returning through the atmosphere. Six of those satellites carried cameras that photographed Starship’s heat shield during the mission.

The spacecraft completed its landing burn over the Indian Ocean more than 10,000 miles from Texas, lowered itself into the water and remained largely intact after tipping over. Previous Starship tests had ended with the upper stage exploding at splashdown, breaking apart during flight or disappearing beneath the ocean before engineers could study a surviving vehicle up close.

Flight 13 was still a test, and neither Ship nor Super Heavy was expected to be reused. But an intact upper stage created a rare chance to compare flight data with physical evidence from the same vehicle.

SpaceX is already preparing a much more ambitious recovery attempt.

A separate Space.com report says SpaceX is targeting Flight 14 before the end of August, subject to regulatory approval. Musk said the company wants to attempt the first tower catch of a returning Ship while also placing Starlink V3 satellites into an operational orbit.

SpaceX has already caught Super Heavy with Starbase’s launch-tower arms. Catching Ship would be another leap entirely, requiring the upper stage to survive orbital-speed reentry, navigate back to the pad and arrive with enough precision for the tower to grab it.

The Indian Ocean recovery may not end with Starship rolling into port. It has still given engineers something they have never had before: extended access to a Ship that survived the full trip home.

If Flight 14 really does head back toward the tower this month, the photographs gathered in rough seas could help shape the vehicle SpaceX is willing to catch.