BFR Developments

SpaceX says, "After approx. 24 days at sea, the SpaceX Recovery team successfully guided Starship to a location just off the coast of Christmas Island. A team of SpaceX engineers is on their way to conduct additional analysis on the vehicle in calmer waters before attempting to return it to Starbase"

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2089685256085344560

"Return it to Starbase"?!

Photo by Australian wildlife photographer Chris Bray who was on Christmas Island and who got excited about photographing a different kind of wildlife

The missing heat shield tiles on the flaps appears to be the result of waves during three weeks drifting at sea and several unsuccessful attempts at towing it. The steel beneath where the tiles were looks to be in good shape, without any scars or burn-throughs.

Photos by SpaceX

Lost tiles are also visible at the nose, probably due to wave action

Worse weather earlier at sea

Heave away, my brothers, let every sailor know,
The ship that sailed from heaven’s edge still rides the waves below.

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Photo by Chris Bray

(Aug 18, 2026 08:35 PM)Yazata Wrote: SpaceX says, "After approx. 24 days at sea [...]

24 days?! Sure doesn't seem like that long ago.

Well, we know how they attached the tow line.

Marcus House says "They don't call that a sea level engine for no reason my friends. It has had a very important role to play for Ship 40."

https://x.com/MarcusHouse/status/2089684679096213909

Elon replied, "Way more of a “sea level engine” than expected"

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2089821794253586695

I think the photo is by Chris Bray using his drone

So it looks like they have had to tow it scooping water the whole time.

(Yesterday 07:31 AM)Syne Wrote: So it looks like they have had to tow it scooping water the whole time.

Yeah, apparently so. They had big hard plastic floatation devices but they didn't work very well. I think it was the waves bashing them against the ship that damaged the tiles. So it looks like they might have just said forget that and just towed it anyway.