A letter in the Independent last week from Carpinteria suggested that 100 rocket launches annually from Vandenberg SFB “could” result in 124 sonic booms. That number of booms is greatly overstated since most launches create no boom in Carpinteria.
The Coastal Commission Consistency Determination CD-007-24 dated 1/24/2025 discusses the potential increase in launches from VSFB. The report states on page 25:
“This information demonstrates that sonic booms generated by launch and landing activities continue to be highly variable and difficult to accurately predict. For example, the initial results provided by DAF [Department of the Air Force] from the acoustic monitoring carried out by researchers from Brigham Young University and California State University, Bakersfield … appear to show that several SpaceX launches carried out during the summer of 2024 did not generate recordings of sonic booms at monitoring stations in Ventura and southern Santa Barbara counties.”
By my front yard monitoring, no sound could be heard in Carpinteria from the last seven SpaceX launches (7/15, 7/18, 7/23 (NASA), 7/26, 7/31 (Air Force), 8/13, 8/18). So, contrary to what the letter writer would have us believe, 100 launches do not equal more than 100 sonic booms in Carpinteria. Other allegations in the letter may also be “fact challenged” because the writer mentioned a political motive.
