SpaceX's Fallen Rocket Heads Home After Stop Near Australia

A SpaceX rocket called Starship 40 has started its long trip back to the United States after being pulled from the Indian Ocean near Christmas Island, Australia. The rocket splashed down in the ocean on July 24 and spent more than three weeks floating at sea. A large transport ship called the Forte picked it up and set off for the US on Friday afternoon. SpaceX engineers hope to study the rocket and use what they learn to make future launches even better.

The Forte is a special kind of ship called a semi-submersible vessel. To load the rocket, workers filled the ship's ballast tanks with water, which caused the deck to sink below the ocean surface. Then the rocket was carefully floated into position above the sunken deck. Once the rocket was in place, the water was pumped out and the ship rose back up, lifting Starship 40 out of the ocean for the first time in over a month.

The small community of Christmas Island was excited to have such an unusual visitor. Students at the local school tracked the rocket's movements, and people all over the island posted photos of it on social media. A local dive company even offered 'rocket trips' so people could see it up close underwater. One bar created a special drink called 'Rocket Fuel' to celebrate the rocket's arrival, and crew members who worked on the retrieval signed the bar's wall as a keepsake.

Tourism operator Lisa Preston said the island loved being noticed by the whole world. She had been hosting 30 birdwatchers for the island's annual Bird Week, and they were thrilled to watch the retrieval up close. 'The decision being made to tow the rocket here when there's thousands of kilometres of coastline south of us, to be able to fulfil that role, to protect it whilst they did what they needed to do ... it shows we've got alternate uses for positive things,' she said.

The trip back to SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas will cover about 20,000 kilometres and take several weeks. Professor Stefan Williams from the University of Sydney explained that large ships like the Forte can cost between $50,000 and $100,000 per day to run. That means the total bill for the retrieval and return trip will add up to a very large amount of money.

Starship 40 is a big deal for SpaceX and for space travel in general. At 52 metres long, it is the first SpaceX upper stage rocket to survive a full spaceflight in one piece. SpaceX's big goal is to build rockets that can land safely and be used again and again, which would lower the cost of going to space. Astronomer Matt Woods said SpaceX has already made space much more affordable, noting that reusable rockets have 'dropped the price down on rockets dramatically.'