They're calling it Rocket Fuel over at the Bosun Tavern on Christmas Island.
It's a potent cocktail made of Coca-Cola and clear spirits that tavern co-owner Owen Walsh drummed up in honor of the unexpected guest that made landfall a few days ago: a charred spacecraft.
"Everyone's talking about it," said Walsh, who also is an owner of a retreat called Swell Lodge as well as a small store on the island. "You go to the minimart and people are like, 'The spaceship's here.' "
That ship is the upper stage of SpaceX's Starship rocket, which the company launched from Texas late last month.
Starship spacecraft have made controlled re-entries to Earth during prior test missions, but never could be recovered. Fortunes changed with the 13th flight. The spacecraft conducted a banking maneuver-tilting to one side-to slow down as it neared the surface. Its engines guided the upright vehicle to the water, according to SpaceX video.
After the engines cut out, it tipped over. But the vehicle remained intact, bobbing along with the currents.
That created a new challenge for the company led by Elon Musk: what to do with a ship thousands of miles from home that weighs tons, stretches more than 170 feet and has a diameter of almost 30 feet.
"We're sending a ship out to recover Starship," Musk said a few days after the landing. The ship then journeyed to Christmas Island.
It is expected to provide valuable information to the company's engineers, giving them a chance to review in detail how its heat shield performed during re-entry from space.
SpaceX has experience dealing with its equipment parts that land in unexpected places. Earlier Starship vehicles exploded and scattered debris across the Caribbean last year, including on Turks and Caicos. Components from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landed in Poland in 2025. The upper stage of another Falcon 9 recently crashed into the moon.
SpaceX is planning attempts to bring its floating Starship vehicle back to Texas. It will need to transport the vehicle over thousands of miles of ocean.
Christmas Island, an Australian territory located around 1,000 miles from the mainland, attracts tourists looking to check out its natural habitats. The annual red crab migration, when millions of the crustaceans emerge from the forest and scramble to the ocean, is one focal point.
It is home to an immigration detention facility, and was used by the Australian government as a quarantine site during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly 1,700 people lived on the island as of 2021, according to a census from the time.
David Watchorn, the head of a local tourism association, said there's some space history tied to the island, pointing to a long-defunct plan to develop a launch facility.
But the arrival of the SpaceX vehicle was unique.
"You expect the unexpected to happen on Christmas Island," said Watchorn, who moved to the island in 2016. "This rocket turning up is something very different."
Residents have been checking out the vehicle, grabbing photos and videos. The rumor mill is active, locals say, and includes conjecture on whether Musk himself might show up.
The ship is moored in an island cove, about 100 meters from a section of coastline, said Steven Pereira, president of the local government. Sightseers are restricted from getting too close to the vehicle.
Photos of the craft bear the marks of its fiery return from space. Streaks cover its heat shield, an indicator of the heat and forces that ripped across it as the vehicle powered back to Earth.
Noah Schreiber, manager of marine operations in the offshore services group at Crowley, a company that operates ocean tugs, said it could take a couple of months to move the spacecraft to Texas, if it was lifted onto a ship for the journey. Towing it back, as SpaceX did to get the ship to Christmas Island, could take five or six months.
"It's something that a lot of these mariners that are in this industry would die for-to do something like this," Schreiber said. "Not that many people can say they towed a rocket, right?"
Back on Christmas Island, residents are keeping an eye out for what might come of the vehicle, and what to expect from SpaceX employees who have made landfall.
Walsh, the hospitality owner, said he was surprised a few days ago when he saw that someone-using a chalkboard where locals trade messages-had wished SpaceX employees luck running a marathon on the island. "They're trying to stay fit," he said.
Pereira, the government leader, said he's open to the Starship vehicle having a more permanent home on the island. It crossed his mind, he said, that perhaps the craft could be lifted onshore and integrated into a local playground.
"We're all very interested in what their next steps are," he said.
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