Now Reading: Starship Flight 13 recovery not looking good: Elon Musk
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Starship Flight 13 recovery not looking good: Elon Musk
Elon Musk says recovery of SpaceX's Flight 13 Starship from the Indian Ocean faces major problems because of rough seas. The 52-metre craft made its most successful splashdown days ago, staying afloat…
The Story in Brief
Elon Musk says recovery of SpaceX's Flight 13 Starship from the Indian Ocean faces major problems because of rough seas. The 52-metre craft made its most successful splashdown days ago, staying afloat for recovery. But in a post on X, Musk wrote: "Unfortunately, ship recovery is not looking good right now." The company's recovery team is battling rough conditions to tow the vessel to port. Even if recovery fails, SpaceX has gathered close-up photos of the heat shield and Raptor engines for future upgrades.
Flight 13, launched from Texas in late July, deployed 20 Starlink satellites and performed a controlled soft splashdown, staying largely intact, a first for the programme. Earlier test flights ended with the vehicle breaking apart or sinking quickly. Maritime experts say recovering such a large rocket from open water is technically very hard.
The Indian Opinion
SpaceX fans hail each test as a triumph, but the rough recovery in the Indian Ocean reminds us that reusability is still a distant goal. The media often skips over the hard part, getting the vehicle back intact. Data from heat shield and engines may be valuable, but if the ship sinks, the real test of full reusability fails. Will the next flight recover, or will we just get more close-up photos?
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
