space
Ship 40 Is Back in a Starbase Megabay. SpaceX's Words, Then Space.com's Account.
SpaceX said on October 13, 2026, that Ship 40 is the first Starship to return to its launch site and that it is vertical in a Megabay. Flight 13, the July 24 liftoff, Booster 20, the Indian Ocean splashdown, and the sea return are Space.com's account.
Topics: space-civilization starship
On October 13, 2026, SpaceX posted that Ship 40 is back at Starbase, vertical in a Megabay beside three other ships. The post says the ship went by air, space, and sea, and that it is the first Starship to return to its launch site. A flight number, a launch date, a booster, and a splashdown ocean are not in that post. Space.com supplied those the next day. They stay Space.com’s account.
This page is the receipt. It sits on Starship and Starbase.
What SpaceX wrote
At 21:52 UTC on October 13, 2026, the SpaceX account posted:
The first Starship to return to its launch site, Ship 40’s journey took it across air, space, and sea. Now that it is vertical alongside three other Starships in a Megabay at Starbase, it will provide first-of-its-kind data on a flown Starship heatshield, Raptor engines, avionics, and more.
The post includes a video and three photos. Label: Primary for those words. “The first,” the path “across air, space, and sea,” the Megabay, the three other ships, and the data list are the company’s sentences. The post does not name a flight number, a booster, a launch date, or an ocean.
What Space.com added the next day
Space.com (Josh Dinner, published October 14, 2026) reports that Ship 40 flew the vehicle’s 13th flight test, launched atop Super Heavy Booster 20 on July 24, and made a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The article says the ship then came home by sea and was moved over land to Starbase. It also says SpaceX has recovered a trio of Super Heavy boosters with the launch tower’s mechanical arms, and that it has not yet returned a Starship upper stage to the launch site under its own power.
Space.com quotes the October 13 post, including the heatshield, Raptor, and avionics sentence, and says the ship is upright in the Megabay beside three later ships. That overlaps the post. The flight number, the July 24 date, Booster 20, the Indian Ocean, and the sea return do not.
Label: Space.com’s account. This desk did not attend the flight or the recovery. Those details are not promoted into SpaceX’s post.
On the map
The vehicle page is Starship. The site is Starbase. The company is SpaceX. The space map is the section. The flight-report archive on this site runs through Flight 9. The May 12, 2026 V3 note named Flight 12 as a future launch from Pad 2. Neither of those pages records this return. The environmental study of a much higher cadence is a different document: the Starbase programmatic EIS.
Sources
Checked October 18, 2026.
| Source | Grade | What it supports |
|---|---|---|
| SpaceX, October 13, 2026, 21:52 UTC | D as a social post, primary for what the company wrote | “The first Starship to return to its launch site.” Air, space, and sea. Vertical in a Megabay beside three other Starships. Heatshield, Raptor engines, avionics, and more |
| Space.com, October 14, 2026, Josh Dinner | B | 13th flight test. July 24. Booster 20. Indian Ocean splashdown. Sea return, then a move over land to Starbase. A trio of Super Heavy boosters recovered with the tower arms. An upper stage has not yet come back under its own power |
A direct fetch of x.com returned 403. The SpaceX post was read through fxtwitter. The link above is the x.com URL.