13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Your bones rattle': The thrill of chasing rocket launches in this California coastal town
The first time Gene Kozicki drove to Lompoc to see a rocket blast off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, it was night, and the whole scene reminded him of the movie 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.' The road was blocked off. There were police. Flashing lights. A guy standing near Kozicki had a radio scanner, and they listened as a spartan voice counted down: Ten, nine, eight, seven … Over the hill, where the rocket was on the pad, all was dark.
And then it wasn't.
'The sky lights up, and it's like daytime,' Kozicki said. 'This rocket comes up and then a few seconds later, the sound hits you. It's just this roar and rumble, and then it's a crackle. And then you look at it and you realize, this thing is not a movie. This thing is actually going into space.'
Kozicki told me about that experience as we both stood atop a sand dune at Surf Beach, just outside Lompoc, waiting for a different rocket to launch. Through my binoculars I could see a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 on the pad at Vandenberg, with a Starlink satellite on top. SpaceX and other companies have been sending up more and more rockets in recent years, and Lompoc has become a day trip destination for aerospace aficionados.
With Blue Origin sending up an all-female crew, including Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, from West Texas in April and my social feeds full of pics of launches from California's Central Coast — not to mention SpaceX founder Elon Musk's preternatural ability to stay in the news — it seemed like everyone was talking about rockets, so I wanted to get as close to a liftoff as possible.
I had driven to Surf Beach on the advice of Bradley Wilkinson, who runs the Facebook group Vandenberg Rocket Launches. When asked for the best spot to experience a launch, Wilkinson had responded, in the manner typical of connoisseurs, with questions of his own.
'Do you want to see it?' Wilkinson asked me. 'Do you want to feel it? Do you want to hear it?'
If I had just wanted to see it, he said, I could do that easily from Los Angeles. If I picked a launch around twilight, I could even see the jellyfish effect that happens when sunlight reflects off the rocket plume. (People all across Southern California had that experience earlier this week.) But I wanted more. I wanted to hear and feel the launch, so I took off toward Vandenburg on a clear Friday afternoon, staying just ahead of traffic.
Not everyone is a fan of the increased frequency of SpaceX launches. Beyond the many controversies surrounding the company's founder, there are concerns about the effects of sonic booms on the environment, and the California Coastal Commission has been battling SpaceX in court over the need for permits. Some Lompoc residents have complained about the effects of all that rumbling on their houses, but others, like Wilkinson, enjoy living so close to the action; he said he doesn't even bother straightening the pictures on the walls of his house anymore.
As I drove up the coast, I kept checking the Facebook group for updates. Launches can be scrubbed for any number of reasons, and Wilkinson and other members of the group, including Kozicki, have become adept at reading signs: They track the weather; they watch the rocket's movement toward the pad; they monitor SpaceX's website and social media.
I pulled into the Surf Beach parking lot about an hour before launch, and that's where I met Kozicki, chatting with a SpaceX engineer and her mother. The engineer was off the clock, but that didn't stop her mom from telling everyone, proudly, that her daughter worked at SpaceX. It became a refrain for the next hour:
'You should ask my daughter. She works at SpaceX.'
'Stop telling everyone I work at SpaceX!'
From the top of the dunes, the four of us watched the launchpad for telltale signs of exhaust. I thought of how, thousands of miles away, crowds in St. Peter's Square had watched for white smoke with a similar feeling of anticipation. Other spectators soon crunched across the ice plants and joined us on our perch. Some of them had parked in a bigger lot to the north and followed the train tracks that ran parallel to the beach.
The SpaceX engineer answered questions about rocket stages and landing burns. She was not authorized to speak to the media, but she shared her knowledge with everyone her mom sent her way.
We all watched and waited. More people walked up the dunes, including Dan Tauber, who said he'd been motorcycling around the area with friends before deciding to break off from the group to experience the launch.
'You want to feel your bones rattle,' he said. 'So why not get as close as you can?'
Kozicki announced to the group that we'd know the launch was about to happen — really about to happen — when we saw a deluge of water on the pad. Then it would be a matter of seconds before liftoff.
Tauber and I sat together in the sand. We watched and waited. He had been a firefighter in San Francisco. He now lived in San Diego. We watched. We waited. A southbound Pacific Surfliner train pulled up alongside the parking lot. The railroad bell kept ringing, adding to the tension.
'Deluge!' shouted Kozicki.
'Deluge!' shouted the SpaceX engineer's mother.
Three seconds later, ignition. Fire. Smoke. Liftoff.
Cameras clicked.
Someone shouted, 'Whoa!'
I might've done the same.
The sound of the rocket came next, just as Kozicki had described. Roar. Rumble. Crackle.
Tauber leaned back and said, 'I'm just going to enjoy it. Take pictures for me.'
The rocket rose in the blue sky. I managed to get a few pics, but the flames were so bright that my camera's settings went haywire. I put the camera down and watched the rocket go up, up, up. Then it was gone. Awestruck, I stood around, wanting more. I wasn't sure where to go afterwards.
I knew I would be back.
Start with a site like There are many reasons why a launch could get scrubbed, however, so Wilkinson suggests checking the Vandenberg Rocket Launches group about 12 hours before a liftoff is scheduled to see whether it's actually going to happen. The final authority for SpaceX launches would be
If you just want to see the rocket, go outside when there's a liftoff scheduled for twilight or later. Depending on the weather, you should be able to see the rocket streaking across the Los Angeles sky.
Surf Beach is a good spot, although the parking lot can fill up quickly. There is another parking lot to the north, at Ocean Park, about a 30-minute walk from Surf Beach. Wilkinson also recommended just parking along Ocean Avenue to feel the launch in your feet.
'There's more of a rumble out there,' he said. 'You can feel the vibration in the ground.' Other viewing spots, recommended by Explore Lompoc, include Santa Lucia Canyon Road & Victory Road; Harris Grade Road; and Marshallia Ranch Road. No matter where you park, be considerate of locals. That means no littering, and no middle-of-the-night tailgating. The roads can be crowded with cars and people, so take care whether driving or walking.
If you're looking for food after the launch, I had a satisfying surf and turf burrito from Mariscos El Palmar (722 E. Ocean Ave) in Lompoc, right next to a bar called Pour Decisions.
There's a renowned burger at Jalama Beach Store, where you can also view a launch. Jalama Beach County Park has many charms, but the cellular signal is spotty out there, so you'll likely have no way of knowing whether a launch has been scrubbed at the last minute. But you'll have a pretty drive either way.
Looking to spend the night? The Village Inn (3955 Apollo Way) just opened and markets itself as being inspired by 'the golden age of space exploration.' If you're having a space day, might as well go all the way.
