THE WORLD’s largest rocket has flown again, and its uncrewed test flight on March 14th, like the two previous ones, ended in “rapid unscheduled disassembly” (ie, catastrophic explosions). But the upper stage of Starship, built by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, successfully completed its ascent into space. It travelled halfway around the Earth, carrying out various planned tests before being destroyed while re-entering the atmosphere. In a defiant post on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, Mr Musk insisted that “Starship will make life multiplanetary.” Perhaps. This latest flight was at least another small step in that direction.