Latest news with #Vandenberg
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Is there a SpaceX launch today? What to know about liftoff, sonic booms in California
Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Californians could catch the first Starlink satellite launch in more than a week from the Vandenberg Space Force Base. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the internet-beaming satellites could get off the ground before the end of the weekend, if all goes to plan. The impending rocket launch would be the latest Starlink delivery from Southern California since July 18 and the second spaceflight within a week after NASA sent two science satellites into orbit for its TRACERS mission July 23. Billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company has of late bolstered its orbital Starlink deployments from Vandenberg – providing entertainment to space enthusiasts and angering some Santa Barbara County residents opposed to the increased launches. As you make your rocket viewing plans, though, an important disclaimer to keep on mind is this: Launches can be – and often are – scrubbed or delayed due to any number of factors, including poor weather conditions or unexpected issues with spacecraft. Check back with the VC Star for any updates on the impending rocket launch. In the meantime, here's what to know about the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, as well as when and where to watch it: California rocket launches: Here's what's due to launch in July from Vandenberg What time is the SpaceX rocket launch from California? A Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory indicates the launch is being targeted for Sunday, July 27, with backup opportunities available the following day, if needed. However, multiple websites dedicated to tracking rocket launches instead suggest the launch window could open as early as 8:55 p.m. PT Saturday, July 26. Neither the Vandenberg Space Force Base, nor SpaceX, have yet officially confirmed the launch. SpaceX Dragon landing: Axiom 4 mission becomes latest spaceflight to make splashdown off California coast Where is the next launch from California? The launch will take place from Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Most launches from Vandenberg fly at a south or southeast trajectory. What is the next mission launching from Vandenberg? The spaceflight will make use of the company's famous two-stage 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket, one of the world's most active, to deliver Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. The altitude is low enough to allow for things like satellites to circle Earth fairly quickly. How to watch SpaceX Starlink launch livestream SpaceX will provide a webcast of the Starlink launch on its website, beginning about five minutes before liftoff, along with updates on social media site X. Where to watch the Starlink launch in California Because Vandenberg is an active military base, the launch complex does not host public viewings of launches. But if conditions are clear, rocket launches from the Vandenberg Space Force Base can be viewed from several locations as far as Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Space Launch Schedule, a website dedicated to tracking upcoming rocket launches, provided a list of places in California to catch the launch in person: 13th Street and Arguello Boulevard, the public site with the closest views of SpaceX launches Floradale Avenue and West Ocean Avenue, officially designated as the 'viewing site for SLC-6' (space launch complex-6) Renwick Avenue and West Ocean Avenue, another intersection close to the base where spectators can park Santa Lucia Canyon Road and Victory Road, provides a partial view of Complex 4 The city of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County is filled with places to catch a rocket launch. The city's tourism bureau, Explore Lompoc, even maintains this list with additional viewing locations: , 6851 Ocean Park Road, which, while it doesn't have a view of the launch pad itself, is located only four miles from the launch site and provides a good vantage to see rockets get off the ground. Parking is limited, and law enforcement will close the road to the beach once parking is full. , 1 Hancock Drive, a community college located nine miles from the launch site where both the launch pad and rocket's tip can be seen before liftoff. , N A Street and McLaughlin Road, located within 10 miles of the launch site, is filled with large fields for activities or for spectators to set up chairs. Surf Beach on Ocean Avenue, one of the closest and most popular places to watch rocket launches near Lompoc, as long as it's open and accessible. But a word of caution: There is an active train track, the Amtrak Surf Station, that visitors must cross. While trains don't run during launch windows, the vehicles could start up again with little warning if a liftoff is scrubbed. Will there be sonic booms? Residents of Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo County and Ventura County, California, could hear sonic booms, according to Vandenberg Space Force Base. Sonic booms are brief, thunder-like noises that are often heard from the ground when a spacecraft or aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound. What to know about reentry Following the launch, the Falcon 9 rocket's booster will aim to land on a SpaceX drone ship, nicknamed "Of Course I Still Love You," in the Pacific Ocean. This allows for SpaceX personnel to recover the booster so it can be reused in future spaceflights. What is SpaceX? Elon Musk, the world's richest man, founded SpaceX in 2002. The commercial spaceflight company is headquartered at Starbase in South Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. The site, which is where SpaceX has been conducting routine flight tests of its 400-foot megarocket known as Starship, was recently voted by residents to become its own city. SpaceX conducts many of its own rocket launches, most using the Falcon 9 rocket, from both California and Florida. That includes a regular cadence of deliveries of Starlink internet satellites into orbit, and occasional privately-funded commercial crewed missions on the Dragon. The most recent of SpaceX's private human spaceflights, a mission known as Fram2, took place in April. SpaceX was also famously involved in funding and operating the headline-grabbing Polaris Dawn crewed commercial mission in September 2024. SpaceX additionally benefits from billions of dollars in contracts from NASA and the Department of Defense by providing launch services for classified satellites and other payloads. What is Starlink? Owned by Musk, Starlink is a constellation of nearly 8,000 satellites that provide internet service to customers around the world. SpaceX has spent more than six years delivering the satellites to orbit with a regular cadence of rocket launches from both Florida and California. While most satellite internet services operate from single geostationary satellites orbiting Earth at about 22,236 miles, Starlink is a constellation of thousands of satellites that operate from a low-Earth orbit, about 341 miles up. That allows Starlink's satellites to have lower latency and data time between user and the satellite, improving performance of things like streaming, online gaming and video calls. Residential plans for Starlink services start at $80 per month. Starlink missions: Why does SpaceX launch Starlink satellites from California? What is the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California? The Vandenberg Space Force Base is a rocket launch site in Santa Barbara County in Southern California. Established in 1941, the site was previously known as the Vandenberg Air Force Base. Though it's a military base, the site also hosts both civil and commercial space launches for entities like NASA and SpaceX. Space Launch Delta 30, a unit of Space Force, is responsible for managing the launch operations at Vandenberg, as well as the missile tests that take place at the base. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: California rocket launch today: When, where to see SpaceX liftoff Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX delays launch of NASA TRACERS mission until Wednesday
July 22 (UPI) -- The NASA TRACERS mission is set to launch on Wednesday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after SpaceX postponed Tuesday's launch due to "airspace concerns." SpaceX officials scrubbed Tuesday's launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California just 45 seconds before liftoff. The launch was canceled "due to [Federal Aviation Administration] airspace concerns that created a no-go condition for launch," SpaceX posted on social media. Wednesday's launch is scheduled for 11:13 a.m. PDT with a 57-minute launch window to send NASA's twin Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites into orbit. The TRACERS mission aims to "help understand magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth's atmosphere." NASA will also send three payloads, the Athena EPIC, the Polylingual Experimental Terminal and the Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss, with the mission. The mission's launch window opens at 11:13 a.m. PDT on Wednesday with a 57-minute window from the Vandenberg Space Force Base's Space Launch Complex 4 East. About eight minutes after liftoff, Falcon 9's first stage will land on SpaceX's Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, according to SpaceX. "There is the possibility that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the landing, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions," SpaceX officials said.
CBS News
22-07-2025
- Science
- CBS News
SpaceX launch could create sonic boom in Southern California, officials advise
A SpaceX launch scheduled on Tuesday morning could create a large sonic boom heard across Southern California, officials advise. The Falcon 9 launch of NASA's TRACERS mission, which will take place at Vandenberg Space Force Base's Space Launch Complex 4 East, is scheduled at 11:13 a.m. with an 57-minute long launch window. "About eight minutes after liftoff, Falcon 9's first stage will land on SpaceX's Landing Zone 4 ... at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California," said a release from SpaceX. "There is the possibility that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the landing, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions." If necessary, a backup launch date is scheduled for Wednesday at the same time. TRACERS, or Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, is a program that aims to "help understand magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth's atmosphere," according to NASA's website. Scientists will evaluate how weather in space affects the weather on Earth. In May, a sonic boom shook most of Southern California as SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere after a launch nearly a day earlier.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch on NASA satellite mission: Will it be visible in Arizona sky?
The next spacecraft scheduled to launch from California is a Falcon 9 rocket. But this time, the SpaceX vehicle won't be carrying a batch of Starlink satellites. Instead, aboard the spacecraft will be twin NASA satellites that will orbit Earth in tandem while studying how the sun's powerful activity can disrupt our planet's magnetosphere. But that information may not matter much to those on the ground who just want to see a rocket thundering high overhead after getting off the ground. Visibility for those in Arizona may be tough: The next launch from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, is scheduled for the daylight hours – making the Falcon 9 much more unlikely to be visible as it soars upward. What's more, rocket launches can be – and often are – scrubbed or delayed due to any number of factors, including poor weather conditions or unexpected issues with spacecraft. Check back with for any updates on the rocket launch. In the meantime, here's what to know about the launch from Southern California, as well as when and where to potentially spot the rocket in neighboring Arizona: California rocket launches: SpaceX rocket launches have increased in California, and not all residents are happy What time is the SpaceX rocket launch from California? A Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory indicates the launch is being targeted for Tuesday, July 22, with backup opportunities available the following day, if needed. The launch window opens at 11:13 a.m. PT, according to NASA. The Vandenberg Space Force Base has not yet provided an official launch alert. Where is the next rocket launch from California? The launch will take place from Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Most launches from Vandenberg fly at a south or southeast trajectory. What is the next mission launching from Vandenberg? SpaceX will serve as the launch service provider for a NASA mission to launch twin satellites to study solar activity's effects on Earth. The TRACERS mission (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) will make use of the company's famous two-stage 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket, one of the world's most active, to get the satellites into orbit, where they will observe observe how solar wind interact with Earth's magnetosphere. How to watch SpaceX Starlink launch livestream SpaceX may provide a webcast of the Starlink launch close to liftoff time on its website, along with updates on social media site X. The company often retweets posts by its founder, Elon Musk. California rocket launch could be visible in Arizona: Where to watch Because of Arizona's proximity to the launch site, there's a good chance people there can see the spacecraft streak across the sky, especially at night or very early morning. Here's a list of some possible viewing locations compiled by The Arizona Republic, a USA TODAY Network publication. Dobbins Lookout, South Mountain, 10919 S. Central Ave., Phoenix, Arizona Papago Park, 625 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Arizona Fountain Hills, a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, which in 2018 was designated a Dark Sky Community with little light pollution Superstition Mountains, located 40 miles from metro Phoenix in Arizona Cave Creek, a town in Maricopa County about 30 miles north of Fountain Hills, Arizona Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, 3400 Sky Harbor Blvd., Arizona, which has a parking garage that is popular for plane-watching Black Canyon City, an unincorporated community in Yavapai County, Arizona Any mountain park in Arizona , 14805 W. Vineyard Ave., Goodyear, Arizona , 2600 N. Watson Road, Buckeye, Arizona , 20304 W. White Tank Mountain Road, Waddell, Arizona , 6533 W. Phillips Road, Queen Creek, Arizona Monument Hill, a 150-foot slope on 115th Avenue, in Arizona What is SpaceX? Elon Musk, the world's richest man, founded SpaceX in 2002. The commercial spaceflight company is headquartered at Starbase in South Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. The site, which is where SpaceX has been conducting routine flight tests of its 400-foot megarocket known as Starship, was recently voted by residents to become its own city. SpaceX conducts many of its own rocket launches, most using the Falcon 9 rocket, from both California and Florida. That includes a regular cadence of deliveries of Starlink internet satellites into orbit, and occasional privately-funded commercial crewed missions on the Dragon. The most recent of SpaceX's private human spaceflights, a mission known as Fram2, took place in April. SpaceX was also famously involved in funding and operating the headline-grabbing Polaris Dawn crewed commercial mission in September 2024. SpaceX additionally benefits from billions of dollars in contracts from NASA and the Department of Defense by providing launch services for classified satellites and other payloads. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: SpaceX rocket launch, NASA mission: Will people in Arizona see liftoff Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
California rocket launch schedule: Here's what's due to launch in July from Vandenberg
Get ready to look up: Three more rocket launches could be commencing in the week ahead from Southern California. That includes not only SpaceX's regular slate of Starlink deliveries getting off the ground from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County , but also a NASA mission. Vandenberg and SpaceX typically don't officially confirm California launches until about a day ahead of time, and the Federal Aviation Administration's operations plan advisory is constantly updating. Still, multiple online websites that track launches suggest that NASA is planning a scientific mission while SpaceX is planning at least two more Starlink internet-beaming satellite deployments. For those who enjoy seeing SpaceX's famous Falcon 9 rocket soaring across the sky, you're in luck: the upcoming rocket launches from Vandenberg should be widely visible across Southern California – and perhaps even Arizona. But it's important to keep in mind that rocket launches can be – and often are – delayed due to any number of factors, including poor weather conditions or unexpected issues with spacecraft. Make sure to visit VC Star for the latest mission updates. Here's a look at the upcoming July 2025 launch schedule (so far) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base. What is the Vandenberg Space Force Base? 4 things to know about California rocket launches Tuesday, July 22: NASA TRACERS Agency: NASA Mission: SpaceX will serve as the launch service provider for a NASA mission to launch twin satellites to study solar activity's effects on Earth for the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission. Rocket: Falcon 9, a 230-foot, two-stage rocket Launch window: 11:13 a.m. PT Tuesday, July 22, 2025 Rocket launch location: Space Launch Complex 4E from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Booster landing: Return to launch site for landing at LZ-4. Friday, July 25: Starlink 17-2 Agency: SpaceX Mission: Deploy Starlink V2 mini Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit Rocket: Falcon 9, a 230-foot, two-stage rocket Launch window: 7:09 p.m. PT Saturday, July 26, 2025 Rocket launch location: Space Launch Complex 4E from Vandenberg Space Force Base Booster landing: SpaceX drone ship, nicknamed "Of Course I Still Love You," in the Pacific Ocean Tuesday, July 29: Starlink 13-4 Agency: SpaceX Mission: Deploy Starlink V2 mini Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit Rocket: Falcon 9, a 230-foot, two-stage rocket Launch window: 8:39 a.m. PT Tuesday, July 29, 2025 Rocket launch location: Space Launch Complex 4E from Vandenberg Space Force Base Booster landing: SpaceX drone ship, nicknamed "Of Course I Still Love You," in the Pacific Ocean Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Is there a rocket launch today? Schedule from Vandenberg in California Solve the daily Crossword
