The specialised Forte has been recruited to ferry the SpaceX craft back to Starbase, Texas. (Supplied: Chris Bray)
A semi-submersible cargo carrier has arrived at Christmas Island to retrieve SpaceX's Starship 40.
The Forte began loading the enormous rocket directly from the water on Monday.
The ship is expected to disembark for the United States.
Like a certain extraterrestrial, SpaceX's Starship 40 is set to depart its adopted safe harbour of Christmas Island and head for home.
But, far from Hollywood special effects, a highly specialised watercraft is helping it make the 17,000 kilometre journey back to Starbase, Texas.
The Forte docked within sight of Starship 40 on Sunday. (Supplied: Svyatoslav Shanygin)
The Forte is a heavy-lift, semi submersible cargo carrier sailing beneath a Maltese flag.
The ABC tracked the vessel using publicly available marine traffic data from Indonesia to Christmas Island's Flying Fish Cove, where it docked late on Sunday evening.
The Forte has anchored within a few hundred metres of Starship 40, where it will sink its stern to load the floating 52-metre-long rocket directly from the water.
Islander Lisa Preston described the spectacle as awe-inspiring.
"It's quite surreal going past it on a boat and having a look at this rocket," she said.
"Then we've, as humans beings, designed this other piece of machinery that can pull that out of the ocean and semi-submerge and float itself again and sail off with the rocket.
It is believed the Forte is making final preparations to load the wayward space shuttle. (Supplied: Lisa Preston)
Christmas Island Tourism Association chair David Watchorn headed out before sunrise to watch the Forte up close, calling it the biggest vessel he had ever seen at Christmas Island.
