December 17, 2024, 12:04 pm 2.7k Comments Early morning rocket launch send sonic booms throughout Santa Barbara County on December 17, 2024 (Photo: SpaceX) Santa Barbara County was jolted awake by sonic booms early Tuesday morning. At 5:19 a.m., SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket for the NROL-149 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The launch send several loud booms throughout the county. Numerous edhat readers wrote in to state their windows rattled, doors slammed shut, and they jumped out of bed due to the noise. Early morning rocket launch send sonic booms throughout Santa Barbara County on December 17, 2024 (Photo: SpaceX) This past week, Rep. Salud Carbajal announced that for the first time, Congress has advanced federal legislation that acknowledges the disruption that space launch noise has on nearby communities, as well as outlining steps it believes the Department of Defense should take to mitigate the impact of sonic booms and other disturbances. “Residents of the Central Coast in Lompoc and other communities nearby Vandenberg have shared their growing concerns as increased space launch cadence makes launch noise a larger burden on their routines and quality of life,” said Rep. Carbajal. “This language makes it clear to the Department of Defense that these are not concerns they can plug their ears and ignore. Congress will take these impacts seriously.” Early morning rocket launch send sonic booms throughout Santa Barbara County on December 17, 2024 (Photo: SpaceX) This was the 22nd flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, SDA-0B, Iridium OneWeb, Transporter-7, NROL-113, NROL-167, and 14 Starlink missions. The launch if available to watch below: Watch Falcon 9 launch the @NatReconOfc’s NROL-149 mission from pad 4E in California https://t.co/47FXDydmnf