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Listen for a sonic boom tonight after SpaceX launch
The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket seen from Huntington Beach.
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Allen J. Schaben
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Topline:
Californians from San Luis Obispo to Ventura may hear multiple sonic booms tonight as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 8:09 p.m. Two dozen Starlink satellites are being sent to low Earth orbit.
Return to Earth: The first stage of the rocket will flip around and begin heading back toward a platform in the Pacific Ocean about six minutes after launch. This is the 15th launch that this first-stage rocket has been part of, according to the SpaceX website.
More sonic booms: Earlier this month, the California Coastal Commission voted against a plan to increase SpaceX launches from 50 to 95 and the number of landing events to 24 annually after raising concerns about the effects to wildlife and public beach access. However, as happened in 2024, the federal government can override the Coastal Commission, as it considers the launches federal agency activity. That’s a determination the Coastal Commission disputes, as many of the launches are to deploy private Starlink satellites.
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No jellyfish plume: The launch was moved back two hours from its original time around 8 p.m., so we won’t get to see one of those stunning jellyfish-like plumes tonight, as they tend to only happen around sunrise and sunset. What are those? As the gasses from the rocket expand in the vacuum of space, tiny ice crystals form, and if the sun is at just the right angle, those crystals can reflect the sun’s light, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
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