Zitat JohnCn@JConcilus Normand Ranger, the SpaceX contract vessel towing Ship 40, has not made forward progress for several hours. The steady 3 knots they were making overnight is on pause for some reason. It is daylight in the eastern Indian Ocean now and this is the current track and speed log. 🤔 Last edited 5:50 AM · Aug 5, 2026
Zitat Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️@mercoglianos 🚨Starship40 @SpaceX 🚨 ▶️Over the past 24 hours Normand Ranger, towing Starship40, has not made any appreciable distance toward Dampier. ▶️The ship seemed to hove to during the evening and then resumed towing again at first light. ▶️No reports why the ship would do that other than to ensure there are no issues with the tow. ▶️Current weather shows wind out of the NE at 11 knots, with the current behind and s 2 meter swell out of the south. ▶️Go Australis and Skimmer Tide are on course for Dampier. 3:07 PM · Aug 5, 2026
Zitat von Ulrich Elkmann im Beitrag "Vorne macht es 'zisch!' und hinten knallt's"Aktuelle Rückmeldung:Zitat Isar Aerospace@isaraerospace Mission ‘Onward and Upward’ will be moved to new launch window. We are standing down from today's launch attempt to address an issue with a pressurization valve...
Mich lässt der Eindruck nicht los, dass die Mehrzahl aller Probleme, die für Startverzögerungen oder Abbrüchen verantwortlich sind, irgendwie mit Ventilen zusammenhängen...
Zitat Dave Limp@davill Wanted to give an update on the hotfire anomaly investigation. Progress continues. The anomaly originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines, which was later confirmed by hardware recovery and inspections. Extensive component-level and engine hotfire tests have been conducted to understand the failure mode better and inform mitigations. The path forward is clear. We're making small modifications to the valve that can be quickly retrofitted to existing engines. We’re manufacturing the updated hardware, which will be ready by the end of this month. In parallel, we're working through the remaining fault tree analysis. 8:44 PM · Aug 5, 2026
Zitat JohnCn@JConcilus Normand Ranger & Ship 40 are making way again! 💪🚀⛴️
After several hours paused, the duo began moving again in the early evening. By 18:51 AWST (06:51 EDT), they had been making a steady 2.7–3.0 knots for the last 2.5 hours on a SE heading toward Dampier. That’s ~786 nm to go! 3:46 PM · Aug 5, 2026
Zitat JohnCn@JConcilus Normand Ranger & Ship 40 have been reduced to about 1.5 knots for approximately 9.5–10 hours. Looks like this trip is going to be intermittent bursts of speed, followed by stretches of slow going. Starship Flight 14 vs Dampier Arrival bets? Gonna be close! 😁🚀⛴️ 2:27 AM · Aug 6, 2026
Zitat Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️@mercoglianos 🚨STARSHIP40 Update🚨
▶️Normand Ranger continued its tow towards Dampier at a little over 1 knot ▶️At dawn she halted and then started moving toward the north. ▶️It is not clear what is the issue, but the tow is not closing Dampier. ▶️The 12k ton, Liberian-flagged heavy lift Dongbang Giant #2 sailed from the east coast of India on July 24 and is in the Malacca Strait about halfway to Dampier. ▶️Dongbang Giant #2 may be a candidate to heavy lift Starship 40 back to the US 6:02 PM · Aug 6, 2026
Zitat What kind of ship is this? DONGBANG GIANT NO.2 (IMO: 9481788) is a General Cargo and is sailing under the flag of LIBERIA. Her length overall (LOA) is 145.64 meters and her width is 38 meters. Position received 3 mins ago Vessel's local time 2026-08-07 00:07 (UTC+7) Speed 7.6 kn Course 129 ° Coordinates 4.0738° N, 99.3500° E. It is traveling at a speed of roughly 6.2 to 7.5 knots, True heading 133 ° Rate of turn 0 °/min Draught 4.7 m Reported destination DAMPIER,AUSTRALIA Matched destination Dampier, AUSTRALIA Reported ETA 2026-08-19 14:30 (UTC+8)
Zitat TheSpaceEngineer@mcrs987 307 hours since landing, 735 kilometers traveled. Here are the tracks of the vessels, including the capture of Starship, since landing.
Skimmer Tide made way to shore a day ago. Ranger, with the floating Starship, is alone in the Indian ocean right now, ~1300km from Australia. They have still not begun their return journey. 9:31 PM · Aug 6, 2026
Zitat von Morn im Beitrag "Vorne macht es 'zisch!' und hinten knallt's"Mich lässt der Eindruck nicht los, dass die Mehrzahl aller Probleme, die für Startverzögerungen oder Abbrüchen verantwortlich sind, irgendwie mit Ventilen zusammenhängen...
Um das noch kurz zu ventilieren:
Zitat Tom Mueller@lrocket The LOX valve being the most deeply cryogenic valve makes it more apt to hang on opening, resulting in a fuel lead. This will almost always result in a hard start, often a RUD. This problem was solved on Merlin by going to face shut-off, so the LOX lead was always insured as only one part moves to sequence both propellants 9:46 PM · Aug 6, 2026
TonyD3942@Td7653·19m @grok what is meant here by face shut-off
G Jacobson@gamtnman62·2h Thanks to Tom for the answer. And thanks to Grok for allowing me to understand the answer 😉
Übersicht mit KI In liquid rocket engines, face shut-off refers to an injector design where the propellant shut-off sealing mechanism occurs directly at the face of the combustion chamber injector rather than upstream through distant valves. This configuration minimizes internal dead volume ("dribble volume"), prevents pooling or delayed mixture sequencing, and ensures precise propellant timing.
Cryogenic Challenges: Liquid oxygen (LOX) is deeply cryogenic and prone to lingering or lagging during valve actuation if long feed lines exist between the valve and the injector face.
A hard start in a liquid oxygen (LOX) rocket engine occurs when propellant (fuel and LOX) accumulates in the combustion chamber before ignition, leading to a massive, delayed pressure spike and potential detonation rather than a smooth start.
Hard Start Elimination: Lagging LOX or fuel actuation creates off-ratio mixtures upon ignition, causing dangerous pressure spikes (hard starts) or rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD)
Single-Part Sequencing: Moving parts (such as a coaxial sleeve over a pintle injector) simultaneously control and seal both propellant flows directly at the combustion interface.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat IGW@interstellargw GO Australis is heading back out to Normand Ranger and Ship 40. Likely picked up additional equipment needed for a tow from Dampier. 2:34 PM · Aug 7, 2026
Zitat Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️@mercoglianos 🚨Starship40 Update Aug 7🚨 ▶️Normand Ranger continued its NNE route during the night. ▶️In the morning, the ship and tow reversed course. ▶️Normand Ranger is showing a SSE course at 1 to 3 knots with restricted availability and a destination of Bali (although that has changed repeatedly) ▶️Normand Ranger is 787 nautical miles from Dampier and Bali (Benoa) is 799 NM. ▶️So more questions than answers from @SpaceX and Solestad. 2:58 PM · Aug 7, 2026
Der Kompass klemmt, die Navigatoren haben schon lange jede Richtung verloren Die Nacht ist schwarz, der Nebel so dicht Und schon seit Jahren kein Land in Sicht Das ist die Odyssee, Odyssee – und keiner weiß, wohin die Reise geht - Udo Lindenberg (1983)
PS.
Zitat 𝐇𝐓𝐀𝐑𝚰𝐇𝐂 🌈☀️@Raptor_54321 S40 really having an Odyssey out there. And who knows how long it’ll take to get back to Starbase, if they even decide to. ETA 20 years! 😭😭 2:27 AM · Aug 7, 2026
Zitat SpaceX@SpaceX The SpaceX Recovery team is still working to recover Flight 13’s Starship from the Indian Ocean. They’ve been overcoming challenging conditions and increasingly rough seas as they attempt to guide the 52m long spacecraft to port 7:55 PM · Aug 7, 2026
Elon Musk@elonmusk Unfortunately, ship recovery is not looking good right now. Nonetheless, we were able to obtain close-up photos of critical regions of the heat shield and engines for future upgrades. 8:38 PM · Aug 7, 2026
Wie man auf den Bildern sieht, sind unter dem Schiff isg. 9 Schwimmkörper angebracht worden; 4 auf jeder Seite, 1 unter dem, nun ja, Heck. Das verringert sowohl den Wasserwiderstand beim Schleppen und das Rollen um die Längsachse.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️@mercoglianos 🚨STARSHIP 40 Update🚨
So, @SpaceX and @elonmusk released some imagery and information that gives more details on their attempt to salvage the ship.
What did I get wrong: ❌The Starship was not partially lifted onto a platform to get the stern (engines) out of the water ❌The ship does not appear to be making way toward any port so any recovery, eventual lift is now in question
What we do know: ▶️In the last 24 hours Normand Ranger and Starship moved northwest and is now 799 nautical miles from Dampier. ▶️Go Australis, after a day in Dampier, is heading back out. ▶️It appears that no tow was directly affixed to Starship, instead they have strung together a noose of large Yokohama fenders - these are used as cushions between vessels and docks. ▶️The fenders are looped around STARSHIP and Normand Ranger is towing it like a fishing net - specifically a siene (*) net, just without the net. ▶️This is causing the fenders to come into contact with the STARSHIP and appears to be causing some damage to the surface. ▶️This method of moving STARSHIP is unlike any other towing/salvage process commonly used. It also explains the difficulty in towing STARSHIP as they dont appear to have any direct control of it with a tow line. ▶️Not sure if SPACEX has contracted with one of the large marine salvage firms like @beleefboskalis or @resolvemarine for support. Last edited 4:14 PM · Aug 8, 2026
(*) Der Kleine Zyniker™ hat im ersten Moment "siren net" gelesen und an gewisse Gestalten aus der oben erwähnten Odyssee gedacht. Es handelt sich aber um einen Buchstabendreher. Gemeint ist dies:
Zitat Seine fishing (or seine-haul fishing; /seɪn/ SAYN) is a method of fishing that employs a surrounding net, called a seine, that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats. Seine nets can be deployed from the shore as a beach seine, or from a boat.
Zitat Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️@mercoglianos 🚨STARSHIP40 Update🚨
▶️Normand Ranger continues to track to the NNW with some backtracking over the past 24 hours ▶️Winds have increased up to 22 knots to the SE ▶️Go Australis should be on location tomorrow. ▶️The tow method - surrounding STARSHIP with a ring of Yokohama fenders - does not allow for any efficient control of the tow. ▶️Still not clear what is the ultimate goal and destination based on @SpaceX and @elonmusk's statements and actions. 5:15 PM · Aug 9, 2026
Zitat TheSpaceEngineer@mcrs987 Ranger is still moving in a manner that is consistent with still having Starship in tow (albeit, definitely leaving a lot of slack in it thanks to the rough sea state). Australis is still a little over 1 day out from arrival. No other outbound vessels, but they haven't slowed down or anything.
352 hours since touchdown, surpassed 800km distance traveled 5:50 PM · Aug 8, 2026
random@r3a9an_k_·Aug 8 How long until the seas calm down?
TheSpaceEngineer@mcrs987·Aug 8 Clears out by the 12th, worst of it is the 10th seemingly
Zitat TheSpaceEngineer@mcrs987 Ranger still battling 20+ knot winds, but they do still have Starship at the current time. Australis has returned, and is currently 10km out and keeping pace with Ranger. Likely going to meet up after sunrise 9:36 PM · Aug 10, 2026
Zitat Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️@mercoglianos 🚀STARSHIP40🚀
▶️Over the past 3 days, Normand Ranger and STARSHIP appear to be heading to Christmas Island, just south of Java ▶️Because of the unique arrangement of this tow - basically a string of fenders looped around STARSHIP - progress has been slow and weather dependent. ▶️Go Australis is on location ▶️Not a lot of infrastructure on Christmas Island to handle a marine salvage but they can potentially get it into a sheltered area to facilitate a recovery. ▶️Weather is an issue with winds at 20 knots from the SE, with a swelling of 2 meters and waves of 3.4M. 6:09 PM · Aug 11, 2026
Zitat TheSpaceEngineer@mcrs987 Day 17, 424 hours since touchdown, 1,120km traveled. Ranger is still exhibiting behavior consistent with being rigged to Starship. They are now traveling perpendicular to the direction of the wind and waves (blowing NW), instead of with it. So there is some very, very slow but intentional guidance happening now, but not towards Australia, and not being being pulled, as the vessel has maintained an ~80º heading regardless of its current course
The winds are finally dying down now and will be at 15kt by the end of the day. The swells and rough seas will continue for an indeterminate amount of time though. Still cloudy as hell, visible satellite imaging will continue to be unsuccessful. 430km to Christmas island. 780km to Indonesia. 1,400km to Australia. 6:17 PM · Aug 11, 2026
Zitat TheSpaceEngineer@mcrs987 Satellite imagery from yesterday clarifies some of the challenge occuring. I've **re-illustrated** it below. Starship is still afloat but she has rolled over on her side, about 70 degrees at the time of the photo (around 3amUTC aug 11). The fenders are all removed, she is floating on her own not rigged up to Ranger. Looking back I believe they were removed during a series of maneuvers by Ranger on Aug 7. Australis also began its journey back out to meet them several hours later, and several hours after that is when we got those most recent SpaceX posts, and the Elon quote regarding difficulty in recovery.
There is a large patch of tiles (highlighted areas) missing on the payload bay which suggests the ship has fully rolled over at least once, as well as chunks of missing tiles on the NY aft flap thanks to the fenders from earlier towing attempts
Importantly: The belly is exposed. They have stuck with her the entire time, unguided. If they wanted to scuttle her they would have already, it would be trivial at this point. They are still fighting to get it back, but for how much longer, we don't know. Australis appears to be carrying more fenders from the same imagery 7:06 PM · Aug 12, 2026
Allmählich erinnert mich das an die Wasserplanetenszene aus "Interstellar." (Abgesehen davon, daß in Christopher Nolans Film das Wasser nur kniehoch stand - aber mächtige Wogen gab es dort auch). Im Film wird die Zeitdilation angeblich durch die Nähe eines riesigen Schwarzen Lochs namens Gargantua verursacht*; der Dilationsfaktor liegt bei 1 Stunde dort = 7 Jahre auf Erden & anderswo; macht 1:61.300. Für Schiff 40 ist das Verhältnis zurzeit: 65 Minuten Flug, 28.000 Minuten Dümpeln = 1:474.
* Um eine solche Zeitdilation über unterschiedliche Gravitationspotentiale zu bewirken, braucht es eine Fluchtgeschwindigkeit von 43.700.0000 m/s², oder, griffiger formuliert, das 4,4-Millionenfache der Erdschwerkraft. Und Kroyphäen wie Michio Kaku haben von der "wissenschaftlichen Akuratesse" geschwärmt, als der Film 2014 ins Kino kam...
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Likely occurred around 6:00-6:30 PM AWST (6:00-6:30 AM EDT) over water ~5,500 m deep.
Normand Ranger has jumped to a steady ~8 kn on a NNE track and is clearly no longer towing.
GO Australis remains in the area, slowly backing down south at ~2-3 kn).
Gap between the vessels is now ~19 nm and widening.
Combined with the earlier multi-day pattern of restricted manoeuvrability and positioning over deeper water in the Christmas Island EEZ, it appears Ship 40 was released and flooded this afternoon, with GO Australis monitoring until it settles into Davy Jones’s Locker. 😢 3:13 PM · Aug 14, 2026
Zitat Blobifi@Blobifie It has been 553 hours (23 days) since Ship 40 landed.
S40 has been rolled back onto its leeward side and is currently being towed by Normand Ranger. Both Ranger and GO Australis look to be headed towards Christmas Island, though this should only be temporary as the island has no means of lifting the ship. 3:04 AM · Aug 17, 2026
Zitat ChromeKiwi@AshleyKillip·16h Good to see the trio Normand Ranger, Go Australis, and S40, as they appear to be underway, heading east at two knots toward Christmas Island.
With calmer, shallower waters, SpaceX will be in a much better position, hopefully for recovery options and further inspections like removing tiles and cutting out steel coupons.
After that, as @interstellargw says, a 1,763 km trip back to Australia would take 16 days. Could they rig it with better equipment to handle that kind of tow? I am unsure how long a ship can stay afloat with wave action oil-canning the thin stainless steel.
Tow it back out to deep water and scuttle it, as SpaceX will be landing a ship soon anyway and can gather data from a much less salty ship.
The only other options would be a semi-submersible salvage ship brought in from another location to pick it up out of the water, or a longer salvage job to place it on a barge for a tow to the US or back to Australia.
Still very impressive S40 has been afloat for 23 days. 11:46 PM · Aug 16, 2026
Zitat IGW@interstellargw For the Christmas Island Questions: - There is only one large port on the island - Restricted to island provisions and phosphate exports - lift equipment is dedicated to the import supply containers - the harbor itself is extremely small in general. - We don't foresee any lift ops occurring at the island port. - Our current thought is these vessels will be pulling into the anchorage temporarily.
If for any reason Ranger does not have S40 in tow.. It has been sunk. Hopefully these answer some of the questions! 3:03 PM · Aug 17, 2026
Zitat JohnCn@JConcilus Day 24: Ship 40 Update💪🚀⛴️ As of 11 PM AWST, the SpaceX salvage convoy of Normand Ranger, Ship 40 & GO Australis is making good progress to Christmas Island’s anchorage. If a steady 2.0 -2.7 knots: • At 2.0 kn: ~12 hours • At 2.3 kn: ~10.3 hours • At 2.7 kn: ~8.8 hours 5:03 PM · Aug 17, 2026
Zitat IGW@interstellargw S40 Recovery: Satellite Images from today confirm S40 is 100% in tow. - Tow Line is currently hooked directly to S40 vs the previous fender setup. 6:33 PM · Aug 17, 2026
Zitat Benannt wurde sie vom Kapitän William Mynors, der sie mit dem der britischen Ostindien-Kompanie gehörenden Schiff Royal Mary am 25. Dezember 1643 erreichte. Aufgrund des Datums erhielt die Insel ihren Namen. Den ersten Besuch stattete der Insel 1688 William Dampier ab, der die Insel unbewohnt fand. ... Am nordwestlichen Ende der Insel betreibt die australische Regierung seit 2001 das Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre, eines der größten Internierungslager für asylsuchende Boatpeople.
Die Weihnachtsinsel liegt innerhalb der Migrationszone Australien. Dies bedeutet, dass anlandende Boatpeople auf Flüchtlingsbooten keinen Antrag auf Asyl in Australien stellen können und sie in Einwanderungshaft in Australien festgesetzt werden.
Zitat TheSpaceEngineer@mcrs987 Just for clarity on what to expect, because I'm seeing a lot of sentiment that this is the end of the op. This is not their final destination. They are coming into the fuel depot (pictured), not the port itself. They will be here for several days/weeks before another vessel makes its way out, and Starship can finally be brought back to mainland Australia. 3:05 AM · Aug 18, 2026
Im Netz kursieren momentan Spekulationen, daß es sich bei diesem "anderen Schiff" um die "Black Marlin" handeln könnte. Dabei handelt es sich um einen 1999 in China gebauten Halbtaucher, der unter niederländischer Flagge fährt, mit einer Länge von 217 m und einer Breite von 42 m. Sie ist am 5. August von Hobart in Australien in Richtung Uruguay ausgelaufen und transportiert die größte rein batteriebetriebene E-Fähre, die "China Zorilla" (offiziell noch als "Incat Hull 096" gelistet), die auf dem Rio de la Plata für die Reederei Buquebus Dienst tun soll. Allerdings sind solche Schiffe auf Monate im voraus gebucht. Die jetzige Fahrt war eigentlich für März angesetzt. Gut festhalten: bei der Fähre handelt es sich um einen 130 m langen Katamaran mit einer Transportkapazität von 2200 Passagieren und 220 PKW, mit einer Batterieleistung von 40 MGWh. Und bei uns hat das im Duodezformat nur zum Schildbürgerstreich und zur absoluten Lachnummer gereicht.
Zitat Die "Missunde III"-Chronik: Projekt ist endgültig gescheitert | Stand: 07.08.2026 19:01 Uhr
Das Fährprojekt "Missunde III" ist gescheitert. Nach jahrelangen Pannen und Kosten in Millionenhöhe zieht das Land die Reißleine.
Zitat ChromeKiwi@AshleyKillip Vessels Normand Ranger and GO Australis along with Starship 40 turned East towards the port but have stopped just short. South-east trade winds dominate the weather for roughly 85% of the year, making the northern and northwestern lee side the calmest. Christmas island has strict laws about anchoring in the protected coral reef areas including the port making this even more challenging for logistics of recovery. 2:55 AM · Aug 18, 2026
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