The Starship that’s been floating in the Indian Ocean since a July test flight from Texas is headed back to Starbase on a journey that will take months.

Crews recently loaded the mega-rocket onto the Forte, a giant ship that can partially submerge itself to pick up cargo. Forte will haul the stainless-steel rocket back to Texas on a trip that’s expected to take “several months,” according to SpaceX.

Images show the 711-foot-long Forte dwarfing the 170-foot-tall Starship. Forte’s estimated arrival to the Port of Brownsville is Oct. 8, according to vessel tracking services.  

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The rocket has been near Christmas Island, an Australian territory about 220 miles south of Indonesia, for more than a week as crews inspected the craft’s heatshield and awaited Forte. 

“They collected heatshield samples and gained vital insight into how the vehicle handled reentry with improvements now planned on future vehicles,” SpaceX posted on X. 

The rocket survived its splashdown on July 27, and then it drifted or was towed more than 1,050 miles before arriving off Christmas Island where it became a spectacle for locals.  

During the trip to Christmas Island, recovery crews faced 30-mph winds and 14-foot seas that threatened the effort to bring home the Starship known as “Ship 40.”

Several vessels – Normand Ranger, Go Australis and Skimmer Tide – helped get Starship to the island. The Australian Space Agency also helped coordinate along the way. 

It’s the first Starship recovered after going to space. SpaceX has said lessons from the space-flown craft will help engineers improve future versions as the company races to meet NASA timelines for Artemis moon missions.

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SpaceX hasn’t said what it will do with the Starship after it arrives back at Starbase.

The South Texas space city is building a $14 million Starship Park near the rocket factory that will include monuments and an amenities building. Maybe Ship 40’s odyssey will end there. 

“Congratulations to the entire SpaceX Recovery team for battling through challenging conditions to give our engineers access to a wealth of data to continue rapidly developing Starship,” the company said on X. 

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This article originally published at SpaceX’s recovered Starship heads back to Texas after Indian Ocean odyssey.