Did you hear a noise around lunch time on Thursday?
Hawthorne-based SpaceX launched the Maxar 1 mission to orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County on Thursday, May 2 at 11:36 a.m.
At 11:45 a.m., Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth and landed successfully on SpaceX’s Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg. That set off a sonic boom, which set off social media buzz among residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
“The sonic boom from the engine landing is definitely real,” said a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Scares my dogs.”
The landing marked the 20th launch and landing of the Falcon 9 first stage.
The satellites launched will support, an eventually replace, and at some point replace Maxar’s four satellites already in orbit. The satellites take high-resolution images of Earth for various technological purposes.
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