SpaceX finally hauls Starship's Ship 40 to Christmas Island after 24 days lost at sea

SpaceX has confirmed on Tuesday (August 18) that it has successfully towed its missing Starship prototype to a bay off Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, 24 days after the vehicle splashed down following a test flight out of Texas. The rocket, known as Ship 40, was afloat for over three weeks while crews chased it down through rough seas. As of now, the officials have set up a 500-meter exclusion zone around the rocket and its support vessels to keep boat traffic at a safe distance.

In a post on X, SpaceX shared that the team is currently on its way to conduct an analysis of the rocket. “After approx. 24 days at sea, the SpaceX Recovery team successfully guided Starship to a location just off the coast of Christmas Island. 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,” the official post reads. Getting Ship 40 back to Texas by sea at the current pace would take over a year. So exactly how SpaceX plans to get it home is still unclear. For now, though, Ship 40 remains anchored off Christmas Island.

What went wrong with the splashdown?

Earlier, SpaceX launched its Ship 40 rocket from the Starbase site on July 24 and it came down in the Indian Ocean after completing its test flight. Days after, Elon Musk shared on X that a recovery ship had been sent out to retrieve it, but later, the team noted that the recovery process was tougher than planned. "They've been overcoming challenging conditions and increasingly rough seas as they attempt to guide the 52m-long spacecraft to port," the company wrote on X. 

Elon Musk also shared a similar update on August 7, 2026, sharing that the recovery attempt had hit a wall in a post on X. “Unfortunately, ship recovery is not looking good right now. Nonetheless, we were able to obtain close-up photos of critical regions of the heat shield and engines for future upgrades,” his post reads. The Australian Space Agency, which coordinated the recovery with SpaceX and the federal government, confirmed the rocket's arrival directly. "SpaceX has towed the vehicle to Christmas Island after it re-entered and landed in international waters," an ASA spokesman said. 

David Watchorn, who owns a dive shop on the island and chairs the Christmas Island Tourism Association, took his own boat out to photograph the spacecraft floating about a kilometer offshore. "This rocket will be in a museum in 100 years time and everyone will look at it – this is the test flight of something quite revolutionary," Watchorn said. He also said the arrival of this rare SpaceX rocket could put the remote island on the world map.

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