SpaceX tows intact Starship upper stage to Christmas Island

Tavern’s ‘Rocket Fuel’ cocktail honors Starship’s arrival

The upper stage of a SpaceX Starship rocket landed intact in the ocean after a test flight from Texas and was towed to Christmas Island, marking the first time the company has recovered a Starship upper stage from a controlled re-entry. SpaceX plans to transport the vehicle thousands of miles back to Texas to study how its heat shield performed during re-entry from space.

Starship spacecraft have made controlled re-entries to Earth during prior test missions, but none could be recovered, according to SpaceX. That changed with the 13th flight: the spacecraft conducted a banking maneuver — tilting to one side — to slow down as it neared the surface, with its engines guiding the upright vehicle to the water, according to SpaceX video. After the engines cut out, it tipped over, but the vehicle remained intact, bobbing along with the currents.

The arrival has become the talk of Christmas Island, an Australian territory roughly 1,000 miles from the mainland. Tavern co-owner Owen Walsh, who also owns a retreat called Swell Lodge and a small store on the island, created a cocktail called “Rocket Fuel” — a mix of Coca-Cola and clear spirits — at the Bosun Tavern in honor of the unexpected guest.

“Everyone’s talking about it,” Walsh said. “You go to the minimart and people are like, ‘The spaceship’s here.’”

The ship is moored in an island cove about 100 meters from a section of coastline, said Steven Pereira, president of the local government, who said sightseers are restricted from getting too close to the vehicle. Residents have been grabbing photos and videos, and locals said the rumor mill includes conjecture on whether Musk himself might show up.

Photos of the craft bear the marks of its return from space, with streaks covering its heat shield — an indicator of the heat and forces that ripped across the vehicle as it powered back to Earth.

The recovery presented a new challenge for the company led by Elon Musk: what to do with a ship thousands of miles from home that weighs tons, stretches more than 170 feet and has a diameter of almost 30 feet. “We’re sending a ship out to recover Starship,” Musk said a few days after the landing. A recovery ship then journeyed to Christmas Island.

SpaceX has experience with its equipment landing in unexpected places. Earlier Starship vehicles exploded and scattered debris across the Caribbean last year, including on Turks and Caicos. Components from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landed in Poland in 2025, and the upper stage of another Falcon 9 recently crashed into the moon.

SpaceX is planning attempts to bring the floating vehicle back to Texas, a journey over thousands of miles of ocean. Noah Schreiber, manager of marine operations in the offshore services group at Crowley, a company that operates ocean tugs, said moving the spacecraft could take a couple of months if it was lifted onto a ship for the journey; towing it back, as SpaceX did to get the ship to Christmas Island, could take five or six months.

“It’s something that a lot of these mariners that are in this industry would die for—to do something like this,” Schreiber said. “Not that many people can say they towed a rocket, right?”

Christmas Island attracts tourists looking to check out its natural habitats, including an annual red crab migration when millions of the crustaceans emerge from the forest and scramble to the ocean. The island is also home to an immigration detention facility and was used by the Australian government as a quarantine site during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly 1,700 people lived on the island as of 2021, according to a census from the time.

David Watchorn, head of a local tourism association, said some space history is tied to the island, pointing to a long-defunct plan to develop a launch facility. But he said the arrival of the SpaceX vehicle was unique.

“You expect the unexpected to happen on Christmas Island,” said Watchorn, who moved to the island in 2016. “This rocket turning up is something very different.”

Back on the island, residents are watching for what may come of the vehicle. Walsh said he was surprised a few days ago when he saw that someone — using a chalkboard where locals trade messages — had wished SpaceX employees luck running a marathon on the island. “They’re trying to stay fit,” he said.

Pereira said he is open to the vehicle having a more permanent home on the island, and that it crossed his mind that the craft could be lifted onshore and integrated into a local playground. “We’re all very interested in what their next steps are,” he said.