Elon Musk’s 52m SpaceX Starship towed to Christmas Island after plunging into Indian Ocean

Elon Musk’s 52m SpaceX Starship has been towed to Christmas Island, off the Australian coast, after the rocket plunged into the Indian Ocean following a test flight.

The Australian Space Agency (ASA) co-ordinated the recovery effort with the federal government and SpaceX to recover Starship Flight 13 – which launched in Texas a month ago.

“SpaceX has towed the vehicle to Christmas Island after it re-entered and landed in international waters,” an ASA spokesman said.

Musk’s company had earlier said it was still struggling to retrieve the rocket.

“The SpaceX Recovery team is still working to recover Flight 13’s Starship from the Indian Ocean,” the company posted on August 8.

“They’ve been overcoming challenging conditions and increasingly rough seas as they attempt to guide the 52m long spacecraft to port.”

The rocket became a sensation on Christmas Island – with locals reportedly gathering to watch the towing unfold and others taking their boats out to get a closer look.

Christmas Island Tourism Association chair David Watchorn said people were “excited” by the novel occurrence.

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

“The boats out were super excited, you could see quite a number of vessels being launched off the boat around this morning to go and have a look.”

Mr Watchorn said officials set up an exclusion zone to deter ships from getting too close to the large spaceship.

Billionaire Musk’s Ship 40 was launched on July 24 from Texas and successfully completed its mission before falling back down to earth.

The vessel was a type of reusable rocket SpaceX is in the process of engineering to minimise launch costs.

The ASA said questions regarding the rocket’s recovery operations and any future plans for Starship’s return to the United States should be directed to SpaceX.