On 7 August, Elon Musk said Ship 40's ocean recovery was “not looking good.” Eleven days later, on 18 August, it was towed intact to waters…

SpaceX's Starship program achieved a significant milestone on August 18th with the successful intact recovery of its Ship 40 upper stage. This event marked the first time a Starship upper stage had been brought back from space and recovered without significant damage. The recovery took place in waters near Christmas Island, following a previous assessment by Elon Musk on August 7th that indicated the recovery operation was "not looking good."

This successful recovery is crucial for SpaceX's ambitious goals of developing a fully reusable heavy-lift launch system. The ability to bring back and reuse Starship upper stages is fundamental to reducing launch costs and enabling missions to Earth orbit, the Moon, and eventually Mars. Previous recovery attempts had resulted in the destruction of the upper stages, making this intact recovery a vital step forward in validating the program's reusability technology.