A SpaceX rocket has become the talk of the town on remote Christmas Island after fascinated locals watched it being towed into a bay weeks after it splashed down in the Indian Ocean.

The Starship was launched from Texas on July 24 in a test flight by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company and re-entered the atmosphere intact to land off the coast of Western Australia.

SpaceX has said previously that rough seas and “challenging conditions” were hampering its retrieval. But the rocket, named Ship 40, was successfully – albeit slowly – guided in to the north side of the island by two boats on Tuesday.

“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,” it said in a post on X overnight.

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… pic.twitter.com/h6YYWb0LT5

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 18, 2026

Christmas Island photographer Chris Bray was among locals awestruck by the sight of the rocket retrieval mission.

“The thing that struck me the most was just how big it is – it’s like, it’s enormous – 50-something-metres long,” he told Nine News.

Locals were “lined up in droves” along the coastline to watch the Starship being towed in – reportedly at a speed of just one knot – according to ABC News.

One café owner said people had flocked to her business to see it go past, while Christmas Island Tourism Association chair David Watchorn described the sight as “incredible”.

“We’d heard some rumours that [SpaceX] might be coming to Christmas Island … and it was just there, huge,” Watchorn told the ABC.

“The boats out were super excited. You could see quite a number of vessels being launched… to go and have a look.”

Rough conditions initially hampered the rocket’s retrieval. Photo: SpaceX / X

It is not clear how long Starship will stay in the Christmas Island bay, but space experts say the fact that it didn’t explode gives SpaceX a unique opportunity to study it up close.

Meanwhile, Watchorn is happy with the attention it is drawing to Christmas Island, which is located 2600 kilometres – or a three-hour flight – north-west of Perth.

“It’s definitely a different kind of arrival – it’s a great one and probably puts us on a world stage,” he told The Australian.

The recovery comes just two weeks after a 4000kg chunk of SpaceX rocket hit the Moon, with fresh before and after images released by NASA on Tuesday showing it created a crater around 18 meters by three meters in size.