SpaceX fails to repeat booster catch

WASHINGTON — Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its giant Starship rocket to space from Texas on Tuesday, advancing the ship's spaceflight abilities but botching an attempt to bring its booster back to land as US President-elect Donald Trump watched from the company's rocket facilities.

The roughly 122-meter-tall rocket system, designed to land astronauts on the moon and ferry crews to Mars, lifted off at 4 pm from SpaceX's rocket development site in Boca Chica, Texas.

The rocket's 71-meter-tall first stage booster, called Super Heavy, detached from its second stage, Starship, at roughly 62 kilometers in altitude, sending the craft into space.