SpaceX's Ship 40 is back in Texas, and it is the first Starship upper stage ever brought home intact after a trip to space. The semi-submersible heavy-lift vessel Forte carried the scorched, 171-foot spacecraft into the Port of Brownsville, near Starbase, on October 7, 2026. Its arrival came 75 days after the ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean at the end of Starship Flight 13.
That splashdown was a milestone of its own. Ship 40 launched from Starbase on July 24, survived reentry, relit its engines for a landing flip, and settled softly onto the water. On earlier flights, the upper stage had broken apart during reentry or exploded after tipping into the waves, but this one stayed in one piece and kept floating. SpaceX's recovery team then spent about 24 days towing it through rough seas to calmer water off Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. Engineers inspected the vehicle there for several days and collected heat-shield samples. The Forte then lowered its deck beneath the floating ship and rose with it aboard for the long voyage to Texas.
The lessons are already flying. SpaceX said what its engineers learned from that first hands-on look led to heat-shield improvements on Flight 14. That mission, which we previewed in September, reached orbit for the first time on September 28. With Ship 40 now back where it was built, engineers can keep studying it on the road to a Starship that flies, lands, and flies again. SpaceX has not yet said what it plans for the vehicle next.
Businesses can borrow a page from that playbook. Ship 40 became valuable because engineers looked closely at hardware that had already done its job, noted what wore out, and fed those findings into the next build. The same discipline helps an office get more life out of the computers and network gear it already owns. A short review of drive health, laptop batteries, firewall firmware, UPS batteries, and warranty dates often shows that some machines have years of good service left, while others are quietly heading toward failure. Writing those findings down turns the next purchase into a planned decision instead of an emergency.
Gun Barrel City companies that would like a fresh look at the equipment already in their offices can call My I.T. Consultants at 903-675-5431, and we will help sort out what still has good years ahead and what is ready to retire. Hourly work is scheduled during our posted weekday hours, and contract customers across East Texas have coverage around the clock.
Image: SpaceX
