Trump watches SpaceX Starship launch from Texas President-elect Donald Trump was in Brownsville, Texas on Tuesday to watch a launch of the Starship vehicle, which was uncrewed. The Brief Expand Starship is SpaceX’s reusable spacecraft-and-rocket combo, designed to carry over 100 tons of cargo – and, eventually, people – to space and then fly back to Earth to be launched again. The Starship spacecraft is launched atop SpaceX’s new Super Heavy booster, a 33-engine gleaming silver monstrosity – also reusable – that is more powerful than even NASA’s Saturn moon rockets of the 1960s. Fully stacked, the Starship combination reaches 397 feet high. The rocket is being developed to reduce the cost and complexity of launches. NASA plans to use Starship as its lunar lander during the upcoming Artemis missions later this decade, carrying astronauts down to the moon and then back up to the Orion capsule. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has long made clear his goal of using Starship to take people to Mars, making humanity a "multiplanetary species." Starship’s successful fifth test flight After engine fires and explosions plagued the first test flights, last month’s Starship flight – the fifth – was the most successful one yet. The Starship upper stage successfully orbited Earth and survived reentry, making a pinpoint simulated landing in the Indian Ocean. More dramatically, the giant first stage booster successfully made a powered return to the launch site. But instead of deploying landing legs like its smaller cousin, the Falcon 9, the rocket hovered next to its launch tower and was caught by a pair of metal arms, dubbed chopsticks. From October: SpaceX Starship's fifth test flight SpaceX's Starship made a perfect landing back on the launch pad last month. President Trump and Elon Musk In his election night victory speech, Donald Trump specifically referenced that Starship flight in his toast of Elon Musk. "This spaceship came down and I saw those engines firing, and it looked like it was over. It was going to smash," Trump said. "And then I saw the fire pour out from the left side and put it straight, and it came down so gently, and then it wrapped those arms around it, and it held it. And just like you hold your baby at night, your little baby. And it was a beautiful thing to see." "When it came down, it looked so pretty, going 10,000 miles an hour and was burning like hell." — Donald Trump, on Starship's historic October flight Musk actively supported Trump’s bid for the White House, spending $200 million of his own cash, appearing at campaign rallies, and regularly posting pro-Trump comments and memes on his X social platform. Since the election, Musk has been spending a lot of time with Trump, reportedly advising him on cabinet picks and policy. Trump has already called on Musk to help run an advisory panel he dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, named in reference to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. The Source Information from SpaceX's live mission coverage, FOX News, The Associated Press, and previous FOX Television Stations reporting was included in this report. This story was reported from Tampa, Fla. Latest News