Recovery crews gathering fragments from SpaceX's Starship upper stage. Interstellar Gateway Starship’s most recent test flight may have failed to demonstrate another booster catch, but it did include the rocket’s upper stage performing a graceful dip into the Indian Ocean. SpaceX recently fished the remains of its Starship rocket’s upper stage out of the water and retrieved bits of hardware to help inform its upcoming test flights. Following the liftoff of Starship on November 19 for its sixth integrated flight test, SpaceX towed Starship’s upper stage back to port in the Western Australian coast. In addition, SpaceX employees traveled to the Gascoyne region in Australia to collect debris from the rocket’s splashdown site, including various tanks, heat-resistant panelling, and other metal pieces scooped up from the water and gathered into bags at the port, according to a video by Interstellar Gateway. Interstellar Gateway, a content creator specializing in SpaceX news and updates, analyzed vessel movement data from all ports in Western Australia to identify the SpaceX vessel tasked with towing the rocket’s upper stage. “This was the first flight we’ve seen a vessel rigged specifically for towing…leading us to the realization that they may be attempting to return starship back to port,” Interstellar Gateway told Gizmodo in an email, noting that all previous operations during past Starship flights were solely focused on deploying buoy cameras to record the splashdown. “Upon our investigation during their port operations, we noticed all of the needed lines and rigging materials needed to pull starship back, as well as a staging area prepped with a crane, ready to remove starship from the water.” Earlier in October, Starship completed its groundbreaking fifth test flight. For the first time, the rocket’s Super Heavy 232-foot-tall (71 meters) booster gently came down towards the tower, which caught the rocket with its extended mechanical arms like a giant pair of chopsticks.