BREAKING: Starship has now been successfully loaded onto the semi-submersible carrier Forte at Christmas Island, Australia. It will soon begin its journey home to Starbase, Texas.

In 2023, researchers in a deep-sea submersible west of Australia came across several whale skeletons 2400 meters deeper than had ever been described. As the expedition continued, the scientists found an unprecedented abundance of skeletons—the biggest, deepest, and oldest collection ever seen on the sea floor. Learn more:

Here’s how Starship will be sent home from Australia to Starbase, Texas: The semi-submersible vessel 'Forte' will submerge its deck, Starship will be floated above it, and Forte will rise to lift it from the ocean. The trip is expected to take around 30–45 days.

Reuters reports that Britain, Norway and the United States disrupted a Russian undersea warfare exercise near Svalbard this spring, after detecting Russian vessels associated with Russia’s Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research (GUGI) using deep sea submersibles to simulate deployment of a new weapon intended to disable subsea cables. The exercise did not damage any cables, but Western officials told Reuters it focused on practicing how the technology could be used during a conflict with NATO. The operation occurred near two 1,400-km fiber-optic cables connecting Svalbard to mainland Norway, which carry satellite data from SvalSat, the world’s largest satellite ground station. The incident comes amid growing NATO concerns over Russian activity around critical undersea infrastructure. Reuters reports that ships have increasingly been observed slowly passing over or near cables and pipelines, potentially mapping them for future use, while NATO and European countries have expanded monitoring through initiatives including Baltic Sentry and Nordic Warden. The three Western countries confronted the Russian vessels at sea, while British and Norwegian officials separately presented Moscow with evidence that they were aware of the technology and its use. Norway’s defense minister said the operation was intended to make clear that attempts to covertly target critical infrastructure would be detected and face consequences. Russia has not commented on the specific incident and routinely denies conducting sabotage operations against NATO countries. Source:

🇺🇸 🇮🇷 Navy SEALs spent four months clearing Iran's mines from Hormuz, diving at night to strap charges onto them BY HAND The covert operation ran mostly after dark. SEAL divers worked alongside the Navy's Common Uncrewed Surface Vessel, a drone boat that tows sonar-equipped submersibles like the MK 18 Mod 2 Kingfish to scan the seabed and find the mines. Once a mine was located and the area cleared, a diver went into the water, approached it, fixed a charge to it and destroyed it, or a robot drone did the same where it was safer but slower. They cleared roughly 80 mines the IMO had counted in June, across four months, with no American casualties, which for work this dangerous is its own achievement. Credit the sailors who pulled this off. The dark truth is how fast Iran adapts around them. Last week it fired rockets rigged to drop sea mines from shore, a delivery method that seeds the water in an afternoon without exposing a single boat to the Navy, and its military claimed two tanker hits in the same stretch. The SEALs cleared the lane the hard way. Iran keeps inventing cheaper faster ways to fill it back in. Source: Financial Times / Writer: Daniel