SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft crashed into the Indian Ocean just over an hour after launching at 8:25 a.m. ET from South Texas. Nearly seven minutes after liftoff, the Super Heavy booster returned to its launch pad, where the launch tower caught it using arms that SpaceX has nicknamed “chopsticks.”

The remarkable catch was a first for SpaceX and an important step toward making the Super Heavy booster a fully reusable launch system, just like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. The booster completed a similar series of maneuvers as today during its previous test flight in June, when it crashed into the Gulf of Mexico instead.

Today’s test flight, which was delayed 25 minutes while SpaceX waited for the launch range to clear of boats, marks the spacecraft’s second full launch, flight and return to Earth. The craft reentered Earth’s atmosphere about 45 minutes after takeoff and performed a “soft” splash in the Indian Ocean at 9:30 a.m. ET. An explosion rocked the vessel shortly afterwards.

SpaceX redesigned Starship’s heat shield for this test after Starship lost fragments of its shielding during its return in June. The company used new heat-resistant tiles and added an additional backup ablative layer ArsTechnica described last week.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) only gave SpaceX approval for the test flight yesterday. The company had originally expected the launch to take place next month, but the FAA and its partner agencies reportedly conducted their review of SpaceX’s preparations faster than expected.

Update October 13: Updated to reflect Starship has crashed in the Indian Ocean.