First Starship recovered intact after a test flight

SpaceX — Flight 13 ship, near Christmas Island — The ship from Flight 13, which splashed down in the Indian Ocean on 24 Jul 2026, stayed afloat and intact and was pulled from the water near Christmas Island in late August — the first full Starship to survive a test flight and be recovered rather than sink or break up. SpaceX loaded it onto a semisubmersible vessel for a voyage back to Starbase expected to take months. This is salvage, not reuse: the vehicle was recovered from the ocean, not caught by a tower or landed, and nothing recovered this way has been reflown.