Residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties can expect to hear one or more sonic booms during and after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday morning — depending on weather and other conditions, officials confirmed.

The U.S. Space Force has approved the Twilight Mission, which is scheduled to go Sunday, Jan. 11, between 5:19 and 6:16 a.m., from Space Launch Complex 4 East. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Monday, Jan. 12, at the same time.

Residents near Vandenberg SFB will hear one or more sonic booms approximately 8–10 minutes after liftoff as the Falcon 9 first stage returns and lands at Landing Zone 4 at the spaceport.

This will be the fifth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission which previously launched Sentinel-6B and three Starlink missions. 

A live webcast of the mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff is accessible at www.spacex.com/launches/twilight, on X @SpaceX, and webcast on the new X TV app.

Launch dates and times are subject to change at any time due to mission requirements.

Twilight is a dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. To date, SpaceX reports it has launched more than 1,500 payloads to orbit for 130+ customers across our entire Rideshare program.

Lisa André covers lifestyle and local news for the Santa Ynez Valley News and Lompoc Record, editions of the Santa Maria Times. She can be reached at landre@syvnews.com