The Super Heavy booster was brought to a hover stop just above the Gulf's waters Starship dwarfs all previous rocket systems. The 33 engines at its base produce 74 meganewtons of thrust. To put that in context, the US space agency's (Nasa) biggest rocket - the Space Launch System, or SLS - produces 39 meganewtons off the pad, and that's over 20% more than the old space shuttle system could generate. If SpaceX engineers can perfect Starship, it will be revolutionary. It's intended to operate much like an aeroplane that can be refuelled and put back in the air in quick order. This capability, along with the heft to carry more than a hundred tonnes to orbit in one go, would radically lower the cost of space activity and make possible new types of activity. For Elon Musk, Starship is key to realising his long-held ambition of taking people and supplies to Mars to build a human settlement. It will also assist his Starlink project which is establishing a global network of broadband internet satellites. There are thousands of Starlink spacecraft in orbit already, but later models will be larger and heavier and Starship will be needed to get them to space. Among the keenest observers of the test flights in Texas is Nasa. Starship is critical to the agency's Artemis programme to put astronauts back on the Moon this decade. A version of Starship would act as the landing craft, taking the crew from lunar orbit down to the surface - and then lifting them back off again. SpaceX, however, will first have to show it can produce a safe and reliable vehicle before astronauts are permitted to climb aboard. Nasa has scheduled late 2026 for when it would like to see boots back on the lunar surface. "Congratulations @SpaceX on Starship's successful test flight this morning! We are another step closer to returning humanity to the Moon through #Artemis - then looking onward to Mars," said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson. In other space news on Thursday, the Boeing company's new astronaut capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS). Known as Starliner, the vehicle is on its first crewed test flight. After experiencing some technical difficulties with the operation of small thrusters, the capsule drove itself on to an attachment point on the front of the ISS at 17:34 GMT. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will stay just over the week in orbit before bringing Starliner home to a landing in the southwestern US, most probably White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. SPACEX