For a second straight day, SpaceX scrubbed the 10th test launch of its Super Heavy-Starship rocket, this time due to weather conditions. CBS News space consultant Bill Harwood has more.

Texas

SpaceX postponed the 10th test flight of its Starship rocket in Texas due to unfavorable weather, specifically the presence of an electrically active anvil cloud near the launch site. The delay was not related to technical issues with the rocket itself, but rather to safety concerns posed by the weather.

The Starship program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and eventually reach Mars, continues to face significant challenges. These include the need for multiple successful launches and complex in-orbit refueling operations, which have never been attempted at this scale. Experts note that while SpaceX remains optimistic, achieving its ambitious goals will require overcoming unprecedented technical hurdles, and the timeline for a Moon mission remains uncertain.

SpaceX scrubs Starship test due to weather

It is another no go for the 10th test flight of the SpaceX Starship due to weather. The rocket is meant to bring humans back to the moon in 2027 and then eventually carry them to our nearest planetary neighbor, Mars. Now before those milestones can be marked though, there are a few issues, more than a few, to iron out here on Earth. Today was just the latest struggle in the multi-billion dollar Starship program. Back in June, the test did not leave the launch pad before we saw this massive explosion. All right, let's bring in CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood. Bill, always great to see you. A disappointing day for SpaceX. What do we know about the weather conditions that played a role in this and when are we going to see the test flight again? Well, we could see it again. We could see them try again tomorrow, but you know, in this case, you know, we talk about problems they've had with the Starship, but this really wasn't a rocket problem. This was just the weather. You know, I'm at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and weather stops launches all the time and nothing you can do about that. You just wait until a better day. In this case, they had an electrically active anvil cloud. You know, this is like the top of a thunderstorm cloud that was in the area. They were hoping it would move out before the countdown hit zero, but it just didn't. And so they had to reluctantly call off the count. But this isn't a strike against the rocket. This is just the weather gods having their way with them. Right. And for these types of test flights, the weather has to be perfect. We've seen firsthand some of the issues in the past. Some of these tests have not gone well, and SpaceX seems to have an optimistic view of the process. This is part of the process. But is there any concern about that 2027 Moon mission? I can imagine they need to have several successful launches before they even think about sending astronauts up there. It's way more than several launches that are required, you know, to get the Starship to the Moon. They have to refuel it in Earth orbit. In other words, it uses all its propellant just to get to Earth orbit. And to get it to the Moon, they have to refill it. Now, these are super cold cryogenic propellants, liquid methane, liquid oxygen. And there are estimates it's going to take 10 to 20 flights of the super heavy Starship sending up tankers loaded with propellant just to gas up the Moon lander enough to send it on to the Moon. Nothing like that's ever been attempted. They've never tried to transfer those kinds of numbers of propellants from one vehicle to another in weightlessness automatically. It's a gigantic challenge. And so I think most observers believe the 2027 date is fiction at this point. I think the consensus is SpaceX could probably solve this problem eventually, but it's not going to happen that fast. Yeah, it's going to take some time. And I'm curious, you know, Bill, you and I have covered many of these launches, and most of them have not gone particularly well. But do you think, looking at the bigger picture, is this pretty typical when you're launching something that's new and innovative like this, that you're going to have a series of failures like this, that this shouldn't be a huge surprise? Well, in this case, I don't think it is that much of a surprise. You know, you've got to remember, this is the largest rocket ever built. I mean, by far. You know, the Saturn V Moon rocket, you know, which was the largest rocket operationally anyway for decades, twice the thrust of that thing, more than twice the thrust. More than twice the thrust of NASA's new Moon rocket, the Space Launch System. It's 40 stories tall. It's kind of unimaginable when you think about it's the largest flying machine ever built. And so getting that to work properly is obviously a challenge. As you mentioned at the top, SpaceX is always optimistic about this. Their whole design philosophy is to test, launch, test again, launch, you know, work the bugs out in flight versus on a computer screen. And that's worked pretty well with their Falcon family of rockets. But this was just another beast entirely. And I think I think it is a little bit surprising some of the problems they've run into. And once again, it's just showing it's good. It's not that they can't fix it. It's just going to take time. And how long that takes is TBD at this point. Bill Harwood, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks so much for joining us.

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