2.02.2025

Sonic boom alert: SpaceX targeting two Falcon 9 rocket launches Monday from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX is targeting a Falcon 9 rocket launch doubleheader on Monday — with the evening mission's first-stage booster expected to generate window-rattling sonic booms across North and Central Brevard County.

"Hear the sonic boom of a LZ-1 Landing," a Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex tweet said, referring to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

First up, SpaceX crews hope to launch a Starlink mission into low-Earth orbit early Monday morning from the military installation. That 4½-hour window will open at 3:54 a.m. and last until 8:25 a.m., a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows.

That Starlink 12-3 mission will send up another payload of broadband satellites to join the company's ever-expanding constellation. The rocket's booster will target landing atop a SpaceX drone ship hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, so no sonic booms should occur.

Later Monday, SpaceX will target a window from 6:32 p.m. to 8:03 p.m. to launch a second Falcon 9 from NASA's neighboring Kennedy Space Center, the FAA advisory indicates. That mission will send up a pair of WorldView Legion imagery satellites — and trigger Space Coast sonic booms as the booster descends to LZ-1.

Monday's SpaceX twin Falcon 9 missions are slated to become the 11th and 12th orbital rocket launches thus far this year from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Quelle: Florida Today