More than three weeks after its reentry to Earth, the SpaceX Starship launch vehicle has been successfully towed to an island in the Indian Ocean.
On Tuesday, SpaceX finished guiding the Starship spacecraft to a point off the coast of the Australian territory of Christmas Island, which is located more than 300 miles south of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, the company said on the X social media platform owned by SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
David Watchorn, the chair of the Christmas Island Tourism Association, told the Guardian that while residents originally saw what looked like three ships off the shore, “when you looked a bit closer, what looked [like] a ship was a black rocket.”
SpaceX said engineers were going to analyze the craft in calmer waters before towing it more than 10,000 miles back to Starbase, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexican border. The spacecraft spent around 24 days in the Indian Ocean.
The flight test took place on July 24. After separating from its booster, the Starship spacecraft reached its planned speed and height, deployed Starlink satellites, reentered Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down as planned in the Indian Ocean, SpaceX says on its website.
Finding the spacecraft and retrieving it from the Indian Ocean proved more difficult.
On Aug. 7, SpaceX said on X that its recovery team had been “overcoming challenging conditions and increasingly rough seas as they attempt to guide the 52m long spacecraft to port,” which prompted a reply by Mr. Musk saying that “ship recovery is not looking good right now.”
Mr. Watchorn told the BBC that “it’s really incredible to think about what it’s been through.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.