Expect Sonic Booms In Central Florida As Falcon 9 Booster Lands At Cape Canaveral, SpaceX Warns

SpaceX is set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Florida's Space Coast with a scheduled booster landing back at Cape Canaveral, which means there could be sonic booms heard in the area. From a report: As the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster plummets back to Earth just under 10 minutes after launch, it creates shockwaves that make a thunderous sonic boom -- which can be heard across Central Florida depending on weather conditions. Usually SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 booster out at sea. But for this launch of a handful of commercial and scientific payloads, the company is directing the rocket booster back to Cape Canaveral. The mission will launch southward, a departure from usual eastward launches. It's the second of a planned five polar launches heading southward just this month. While there weren't any issues with wayward boats or planes for a launch last week, SLD 45 is asking boaters and pilots to continue to pay attention to new hazard areas issued for this launch. "These trajectories are different," said [Lt. Col. Brian Eno, Commander of the 1st Range Operations Squadron]. "We must make sure that we're vigilant as a community on reviewing those notices. SpaceX's Transporter-3 mission has a 29-minute launch window which opens Thursday at 10:25 a.m. ET. Space Fore forecasters said there's a 70 percent chance of favorable launch weather.

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