SpaceX Starship the talk of remote Australian island as Elon Musk’s engineers sent to retrieve it

Christmas Island locals who woke to see the spacecraft floating off the coast hope global attention will encourage tourists Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast 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 in 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, landing in the ocean. In recent weeks, the company has been working to retrieve the 52m long piece of spacecraft amid rough seas, before towing it to calmer waters for further study. “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.” David Watchorn, the chair of the Christmas Island Tourism Association, said most islanders woke on Tuesday to see wh