SpaceX Retrieves Starship from Christmas Island
Engineers from Elon Musk's SpaceX are on their way to a remote Australian island to retrieve part of a Starship that dived into the Indian Ocean. The spacecraft, now floating off the coast of Christmas Island, was launched from Texas on 24 July in the 13th test of the technology. After reaching orbit and releasing 20 non-functioning satellites, the upper stage of the rocket re-entered the atmosphere and landed in the ocean.
The SpaceX Recovery team successfully guided Starship to a location just off the coast of Christmas Island, the company posted on social media. A team of SpaceX engineers is on their way to conduct additional analysis on the vehicle in calmer waters before attempting to return it to Starbase.
Specialized Vessel Forte Arrives to Load the Rocket
A highly specialised watercraft is helping with the return journey. The Forte, a heavy-lift, semi-submersible cargo carrier sailing under a Maltese flag, docked within sight of Starship 40 on Sunday evening. Publicly available marine traffic data tracked the vessel from Indonesia to Christmas Island's Flying Fish Cove.
The Forte has anchored within a few hundred metres of Starship 40, where it will sink its stern to load the floating 52-metre-long rocket directly from the water. It will then transport the rocket on the 17,000-kilometre journey back to Starbase, Texas.
Local Community Reacts to the Spectacle
Islander Lisa Preston described the spectacle as awe-inspiring. “It's quite surreal going past it on a boat and having a look at this rocket,” she said. “Then we've, as human beings, designed this other piece of machinery that can pull that out of the ocean and semi-submerge and float itself again and sail off with the rocket. I've been living here nearly 30 years and this will make one of the top 10 experiences.”
Christmas Island Tourism Association chair David Watchorn headed out before sunrise to watch the Forte up close, calling it the biggest vessel he had ever seen at Christmas Island. “It's huge, it pales [other ships] in significance,” he said.
The rocket's presence has caused excitement in the tight-knit island community. Nine-year-old space enthusiast George Pride said he went within one metre of the rocket and described it as massive. He said it was something he and his schoolmates would never forget.
Locals hope the global attention might encourage more tourists to visit the island, about 1,550 km off Western Australia, and experience its rugged landscapes and unique biodiversity, including red crabs and flying foxes.
Broader Context: Space Debris on the Rise
The arrival came just weeks after a separate incident of space debris, where six “space balls,” likely from a foreign rocket body, washed ashore in north Queensland.
Associate professor Alice Gorman, a space archaeologist at Flinders University, said the “rapid acceleration” in the number of satellites being launched meant more rocket bodies and debris, both in space and falling back to Earth. “We've gone from having about 5,000 active satellites to having 16,000, around about 16,000 active satellites, of which about 10,000 are SpaceX constellations,” she said.
Upper stage rocket bodies could be dangerous, she said, because sometimes they contained toxic materials or leftover fuel, which could explode. The vehicle is currently being secured for transport by the recovery team.
Looking Ahead
SpaceX has not yet announced a date for the next Starship flight, but Musk said the next flight would be early next year. The recovery of this upper stage is expected to provide valuable data for future missions and for the eventual goal of returning Starship stages to the launch site for rapid reuse.