1.11.2025

SpaceX sonic booms may startle unsuspecting sleepers early Sunday morning in Brevard County

Sonic booms from a descending SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster should rattle communities near the Cape during early morning hours Sunday, Nov. 2.

SpaceX's Bandwagon-4 launch window extends from 1:00 a.m. to 2:03 a.m. Sunday, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory indicates. The Falcon 9 will lift off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Expect sonic booms roughly eight minutes later. During SpaceX's April 21 nighttime Bandwagon-3 mission, the rocket's first-stage booster did likewise while descending to touchdown at Landing Zone 2 at the Space Force installation. The landing zone is located just north of Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and Blue Origin's New Glenn facilities at Launch Complex 36.

SpaceX's Bandwagon missions serve as "rideshare" trips into orbit for smallsat companies and other space ventures. Bandwagon-3 carried ADD’s 425Sat-3, Tomorrow Companies Inc.’s Tomorrow-S7 and Atmos Space Cargo’s PHOENIX re-entry capsule.

The SpaceX website advertises rideshare costs as low as $325,000 to launch a 50-kilogram payload into a sun-synchronous polar orbit.

Looking ahead on the Eastern Range calendar, another SpaceX Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit on Wednesday, Nov. 5, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launch window: 7:08 p.m. to 11:51 p.m.

Wednesday's manifest also includes United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket launch carrying a Viasat communications satellite. That 44-minute window opens at 10:24 p.m. from Launch Complex 41 at the military installation

Quelle: Florida Today