Hawk

Tug Hawk is an ocean-going escort tractor tug owned and operated by Seabulk. Tug Hawk has been contracted on-and-off since 2017 to tow SpaceX droneships offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.

Hawk is a 6,700 horsepower tugboat chartered by SpaceX for recovery operations. SpaceX droneships cannot move themselves over long distances – to and from landing zones – and require a tugboat to tow them hundreds of kilometers downrange. Tug Hawk was first contracted for the EchoStar 105/SES-11 mission in October 2017 and has since repeated the role more than 18 times. Hawk is the most experienced droneship tugboat that SpaceX uses on a regular basis, having worked the role for three years.