SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch May Cause Sonic Booms in SoCal Today

SpaceX successfully launched the Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base, marking its second launch of the day. The mission, a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aims to study the role of clouds and aerosols in Earth's radiation balance to improve climate models and weather predictions. The Falcon 9 rocket's first-stage booster, which has now flown seven times, landed back at Vandenberg, and the satellite was deployed into a sun-synchronous polar orbit.