This image from SpaceX shows SpaceX’s mega Starship rocket as it returns from a test flight, Sunday, October 13, 2024, over Boca Chica, Texas.

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

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

Seven minutes into the test flight and after breaking away from the spaceship 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. The SpaceX crew cheered as the booster descended on Mechazilla with thirteen engines burning before finally being caught with three engines burning.

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

The spacecraft, which had no crew, floated in space for nearly 45 minutes before crashing into the Indian Ocean at 9:30 a.m. CT an hour and five minutes after the test flight. A flash of the spacecraft as it landed in the ocean was seen on SpaceX’s livestream of the vehicle’s return.

“The ship landed right on target! Second of two objectives achieved,” Musk said another post on X with a fragment of a spaceship landing in the ocean.

The success of the flight is an important step for the company as it aims to one day use Starship to deliver astronauts and supplies to Earth’s orbit, as well as to the moon and planets such as Mars. The largest rocket ever built, Starship, is 400 feet tall, including the rocket booster, which SpaceX says is “completely reusable.”

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

SpaceX did not attempt to recover the spacecraft, but attempted to demonstrate that it could deliver Starship to its target under control.

Sunday’s launch also comes amid a background of care about the impact on the environment the flight tests take place in the areas surrounding the launch pad.

NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel contributed to this report.