Against all odds, SpaceX finally tugs Starship into port after 24 days at sea

SpaceX's Starship survived splashdown in the Indian Ocean after its 13th test flight on July 24, remaining intact rather than breaking apart as previous test vehicles had. A recovery ship towed the spacecraft roughly several hundred miles to Christmas Island, an Australian territory, arriving after 24 days at sea. SpaceX engineers are heading there to inspect the hardware in calmer waters before figuring out how to transport the massive vehicle—over 170 feet long and too big for any aircraft—the more than 10,000 miles back to Starbase in South Texas.