SpaceX has quickly become something of a taxi service for space travel, allowing private companies and governments alike to affordably send satellites into orbit for research and commercial purposes. The frequent launches have reportedly become something of a nightmare for those who live near the launch sites, however.
Business Insider spoke with residents near the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, who expressed feelings ranging from excitement to frustration with launches that sometimes cause homes to rattle, car alarms to go off, and dogs to start barking in the middle of the night. Residents near other launch sites in Florida and Texas has expressed similar concerns.
“I have major panic attacks during the launches,” Inga Yater, a resident of Carpinteria, California told Business Insider. “And it keeps getting worse; sometimes I feel like I’m having a heart attack.” Carpinteria is more than 70 miles from the launch site. Just ten miles away from the base in Lompoc, residents have reported sonic booms that can feel like an earthquake.
Never before SpaceX have launches occurred so frequently—in 2024, SpaceX conducted 50 launches from Vandenberg alone and aims to double that to 100 in 2025. Besides launching satellites for other companies, SpaceX has also been building up its Starlink satellite internet service and must periodically replace the satellites approximately every five years. Starlink has become a vital source of communications infrastructure in places like Ukraine where traditional ground-based connections have been severed.
Vandenberg offers an SMS alert system for locals to be notified of upcoming launches, but those signed up for the service say it is not always reliable and does not give a good idea of how strong a boom will be felt.
The rockets that SpaceX has been launching are primarily from its Falcon series and are smaller than the Starship rockets that SpaceX plans to use in the future. Kent Gee, a physics professor and acoustics engineer at Brigham Young University, said that Starship launches are akin to a “volcanic eruption on the launchpad” and sound as loud as standing 200 feet from a Boeing 747 during takeoff, by his estimation.
SpaceX does not have plans to launch Starship rockets from Vandenberg. It does want to launch Falcon Heavy rockets from the base, however, which are larger than existing rockets that take off from Vanderberg. The Falcon Heavy must first pass an environmental review and SpaceX must maintain insurance in case locals report structural damage from its launches.
Noise pollution and ground tremors can be disruptive to daily life, and it is unclear what exactly can be done about the disturbances besides moving the launchpads. In Florida and Texas, disturbances are less common because the launchpads in those locations are further from populated areas. Generally, launchpads need to be close to a body of water so that any components shed do not endanger lives on the ground, limiting where they can go.
SpaceX did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment and generally does not speak to the media. The company has faced criticism in Texas for threatening wildlife there, but president-elect Trump administration has signaled that any company investing at least $1 billion into the U.S. can expect to receive expedited project approvals, specifically calling out environmental hurdles. Residents near its launch sites should not expect reprieve any time soon.
