This is bigger than just fishing a rocket out of the ocean. Flight 13’s Starship is the first to survive a controlled reentry and soft splashdown intact — and stay floating long enough for recovery. That means engineers can finally put their hands on real flight hardware: heat shield tiles that endured peak heating, engines that fired through the landing burn, and flaps that guided it hypersonic. Every previous Ship was lost. This one can teach us exactly what worked, what didn’t, and how to make Starship truly reusable. The data from this recovery could accelerate the path to tower catches and rapid turnaround more than any telemetry ever could. That’s why the recovery team is fighting rough seas right now. History in the making. 🚀