The U.S. Air Force has announced plans to hold a series of public hearings addressing the increase of SpaceX rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base and the resulting sonic booms that have raised environmental and noise concerns.
After an apparent influx of complaints from residents, Air Force base commanders are opening a dialogue with the public about the ramifications of increasing the number of rocket launches to 100 per year. Currently, Elon Musk’s private company, SpaceX, has partnered with the Air Force to launch 50 Falcon 9 rockets annually to deploy Starlink communication satellites into low Earth orbit.
As the Air Force has partnered with SpaceX on some of these launches, the company has been granted exemptions from some environmental regulations typically required for commercial endeavors…