What is a sonic boom? People who oppose SpaceX rocket launches from nearby Vandenberg Space Force Base claim in media reports that they have been hearing “sonic booms” from recent launches; but have they?

And are these noises any more irritating than other noises?

The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines a sonic boom as “a loud explosive noise caused by the shock wave from an aircraft traveling faster than the speed of sound.”

In the 1950s I lived in the San Fernando Valley, and we frequently heard sonic booms from aircraft testing operations at Edwards Air Force Base, which was 40 miles away beyond the mountains surrounding the valley.

Later, Space Shuttle landings at Edwards also created sonic booms as the craft passed through the atmosphere on its way to a landing on the Rogers Dry Lake bed.

Here in Lompoc, there are two sources of the rocket launch noises people are hearing. One is the exhaust of the rocket as it ascends into orbit; this sound is like the noise heard as jet aircraft take off and is subsonic.

The other is a sonic boom that occurs when the first stage of Falcon 9 returns to land at Vandenberg caused by the firing of retrorockets used to slow the descent for a safe landing.

Exhaust noises are heard in the Lompoc Valley and beyond for every launch on south Vandenberg and have been for decades. However, the sonic booms are rare since most of the return landings are on a drone ship many miles out to sea southwest of the launch site.

Let’s get serious about how disruptive these noises might be.

Every day and even late at night you can hear loud exhaust noises when cars and trucks are accelerating away from stop signs, and from emergency vehicle sirens as they move down our streets. They can also be heard coming from people who like to play loud music while hosting a party.

There is also construction noise associated with air hammers breaking concrete, large machines grinding up the street surface for replacing damaged pavements, nail guns used for the neighbors’ roof or constructing a new building and leaf blowers or lawnmowers.

These noises often drown out causal conversation and/or the ability to hear your TV even if your windows and doors are closed. But while the exhaust noises from rockets only last a couple of minutes, some of the other noises can last for hours if there is a party or construction project in the neighborhood.

Fireworks also create sonic boom-like noises, and these can be heard for most of June and July every year and many times during the rest of the year. These booms sometimes go on for hours as people celebrate.

I worked around military bases all my adult life. Jet exhaust is common to most air bases; however, Vandenberg has no active flying mission. 

Jet aircraft land and take off from the base routinely; however they can’t be heard because the airfield is several miles from Lompoc. Aircraft, including small jets, can often be heard taking off from Lompoc Airport.

To all of you complainers out there, noise is part of our daily lives; learn to accept it.

The only way you can escape the noise of an active society is to move into undeveloped areas of the wilderness where the only sounds you hear are the flapping of bird wings, the bellow of a wild animal or the crashing of a tree as it falls to earth.