This image provided by SpaceX shows SpaceX’s mega Starship rocket returning during a test flight Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, over Boca Chica, Texas.

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SpaceX successfully “captured” its “Super Heavy” booster on its first attempt during a flight test on Sunday, a first for the company and its most powerful spacecraft.

The spacecraft lifted off its launch tower into the clear morning sky from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7:25 a.m. CT, with all 33 of its Raptor engines firing properly.

Seven minutes into the flight test and after separation from the spacecraft vehicle, the rocket booster was successfully captured for the first time ever in “Mechazilla,” a mechanism with chopstick-like arms on a tower on the launch pad. SpaceX employees cheered as the launch vehicle landed on Mechazilla with 13 engines burning before finally being caught with three engines burning.

“The tower caught the rocket!!,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted on X with a clip of the moment the launch vehicle was caught.

The crewless spacecraft sailed in space for nearly 45 minutes before landing in the Indian Ocean at 9:30 a.m. CT, an hour and five minutes after the flight test began. SpaceX’s livestream of the spacecraft’s reentry showed a flash of the spacecraft after it landed in the ocean.

“Ship landed exactly on target! “Second of two goals achieved,” Musk said another contribution to X with a clip of a spaceship landing in the ocean.

The success of the flight is a significant step for the company as it hopes to one day use Starship to carry astronauts and supplies into Earth orbit, as well as to the moon and planets like Mars. Starship, the largest rocket ever built, stands 397 feet tall, including the rocket booster, which SpaceX says is “fully reusable.”

Significant improvements have been made to the spacecraft since the rocket’s first launch in April 2023 exploded shortly after takeoff. Starship’s heat shield was overhauled, SpaceX says: its thermal protection system was replaced with newer tiles and included additional protections between the flaps and a backup layer.

SpaceX was not trying to recover the spacecraft, but was trying to demonstrate that it could get Starship to its destination under control.

The start on Sunday also takes place Background of concern about the Impact on the environment The flight tests take place on the areas around the launch pad.

NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel contributed to this report.