SpaceX’s mega rocket blasted off on another test flight on Thursday, and made it farther than the two previous attempts, but the spacecraft was lost as it descended back to Earth.

The company said it lost contact with the spacecraft as it neared its goal, a splashdown in the Indian Ocean, about an hour after lift-off from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border.

The first two flights last year ended in explosions just minutes after lift-off.

Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, soared from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border and headed out over the gulf. No people or satellites were on board.

Minutes later, the booster separated seamlessly from the spaceship and splashed down into the gulf. The spacecraft continued on its flight eastwards, reaching an altitude of 100 miles (160km) and approaching orbital speed — outperforming previous attempts.

The rocket and futuristic-looking spacecraft towers 121 metres (397 feet) high, easily exceeding Nasa’s past and present moon rockets.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk was shooting for a shorter, hour-long flight on the latest demo, with the Indian Ocean as the spacecraft’s finish line.

He noted that the company had made thousands of upgrades and fixes to improve the odds.

Nasa watched with keen interest: The space agency needs Starship to succeed in order to land astronauts on the moon in the next two or so years.

This new crop of moonwalkers — the first since last century’s Apollo programme — will descend to the lunar surface in a Starship, at least for the first couple times.