There's no big rush to bring SpaceX's Falcon Heavy to Vandenberg Space Force Base.
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SpaceX has plans to launch Falcon Heavy from California—if anyone wants it to
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Well, VSFB started as VAFB in 1941 and testing in '58 was for missiles. Still, you're close to a military base with all that entails.
Goalpost shift? SpaceX didn't even exist in the 90's let alone in the 50's.
Yes, I know this is /s part of your post, but still - it's not like the central/south part of CA was anything close to where population was a concern.
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It's a big shift in the frequency, nature, and intensity of operations.
It's like if you moved in next to a sleepy grass strip and they rebuilt it as an international airport.
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Or normal schmucks like me that can't get internet at all. Or the huge portion of the rest of the world that doesn't have (and probably won't ever get) internet service any other way. Or... yeah, no, rich people on yachts may get better service too, but it is a tiny aspect of the whole.
Let's keep the context here. It's not inconveniencing lots of people randomly. It is people who moved next to a military base that launches rockets. This was going on before they moved in, and let's be honest, they can move anywhere. Rocket launches have very specific locations where they can even happen AT ALL. This whole argument is dumb.
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kind of a shift again - since it was a military base and not a public airport.
If there's any kind of military base around, defense needs will always dictate what happens at the base. Especially an AVB considering how military aircraft develop.
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Before Elon started doing what he does, you didn't hear the launches at all from Santa Barbara. It's the boosters flying back that make most of the noise. That's what really makes this irksome -- it's not a national security project, it's not to advance science, it's just to enrich one man.
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Providing low latency high speed broadband internet to virtually the entire planet, amongst other things... but sure, that whacky rich guy nobody likes might make a buck too. Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe...
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Just don't disagree with him politically, or he'll turn it off.
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You do realize that Falcon 9 is not limited to Starlink?
Oh wait - you have an anti-musk fetish so don't consider anything else.
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Well, I have... and he hasn't... but you keep having a good time with your weird persecution conspiracy.
Oh right, because I'm not buying internet service from him. I'm buying from this huge company that behaves responsibly, even though it is majority owned by him. It's almost like how capitalism is supposed to work.
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None of the starlink launches return to land. The return to land launches we have had at Vandy are mix of government launches (NROL, USSF, NASA, etc.), various commercial launches, and "transporter" / "bandwagon" ride share launches. A good amount of the launches have been for science payloads. I don't recall a RTL launch that was in support of just SpaceX (maybe one years ago at the beginning of their use of Vandy).
Also I live in SB and have lived in San Diego. In general terms living in SD I heard military aircraft sonic booms off the coast (and some over land), live fire exercises off the coast by the navy, and of course operations out of north island when down by the bay. Those have happened late a night and would shake the windows, kinda a sound you also feel in your core. The situation in SB is relatively minor in my experience compared to SD.
It is an uptick in what we hear for sure in SB but the facility has long existed and always had the potential for increased usage, it just happens that SpaceX is leading that increase but other military usage could have easily stepped up as part of various missile defense testing and deployment over the decades. If ULA had been allowed to focus on some of the launcher solutions they had talked about over the years it could have easily been them expanding usage of Vandy.
The non-return land launches are seldom noticed by folks in SB given the generally low rumble they cause that can be harder to pick out from city, etc. noise. Of course some days things can be more noticeable then others because of atmospheric effects... those same days I often hear way more of flights out of SBA (or the train 10 miles away from me).
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The flights out of SBA didn't cause my picture windows to rattle and bow. I was afraid to stand next to them during launches for fear this would be the one that finally shattered them. I've seen videos of what sonic booms can do to glass.
I find it darkly funny how, for years, the Oklahoma City sonic boom tests have been described as unethical, but as Elon ramps up his launch cadence we're basically repeating them over the Central Coast.
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You know, you might want to do some research:
SpaceX launches (from SpaceX site)
- Slide down to "Completed Missions"
- At the column labelled "Launch Site", select "Vandenberg, California"
- (Optionally), at the bottom of the list, select a number greater than "10" to compare launches (I selected '50' and had the list down to 2 pages)
- Under the column under "Return Site", count how many times there are listed for "Landing Zone"
Based on the number of launches from Vandenberg that are returning to the launch site, I don't think the windows are rattling as often as you're complaining about. And when you look at the number of current future launches, none are currently scheduled to return to landing zone.
EDIT: This is about the launch rattling
And unless you've been living in Santa Barbara since the 1940's - and knowing the Air Force base was withing hopping distance - I don't see how you can complain about the noise since you moved into Santa Barbara area AFTER the AFB was already there.
And if you want to complain about "not knowing the AFB was there when you moved in", you really should have done your homework before moving there.
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Yes, because in the 1940s they were totally allowing companies to launch private, for-profit rockets there. It's exactly the same situation as it was then and people should have forseen, perhaps through prophecy, that SpaceX would come along.
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Whoosh. Blinders are at full force.
Unless You personally have lived in Santa Barbara (before the AFB), then you must have known a) there was an air force base there - with all that implies (especially since there was a war - you might have learned about it in school), or you moved there after 1958 and weren't bothered by the missiles and testing of rockets - considering the 60's was all about the nuclear age and rocket ships, should have given you a clue about the future in that area.
If you're harping on this about the residents of SB and you don't live there - you're just as bad as the white people trying to push slave reparations when they never owned slaves and they're not black (yes there were non-black slaves too) and their ancestors were never slaves; virtual signalling is not a nice look on people.
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