Update: Launch Complete!

UPDATE, 7:50 PM PDT: I hope you were able to see the launch — it was a good one! We saw the booster fire its way down for quite some time before it disappeared out of our sight.

About ten minutes later, what appeared to be the International Space Station buzzed over Los Angeles!

FWIW, here’s the page I use to keep up on Vandenberg launches. They blast out emails whenever they get updates. Some of the launch announcements are fairly last-minute. I highly recommend subscribing.

Original Post

Don’t worry — this isn’t an April Fool’s Day prank. (I did that earlier today. 😉 ).

If you’re in the southwest United States tonight, keep your eyes peeled for what could be an absolutely amazing sight.SpaceX is scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket at 7:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. It will send 22 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.

SpaceX says there are “backup opportunities available until 11:30 p.m. PT. If needed, additional opportunities are also available on Tuesday, April 2 starting at 7:30 p.m. PT.” But let’s hope tonight is a go for launch!

I’m especially excited for folks traveling through this part of this country who don’t usually get chances to see rocket launches on the regular.

Those of us in Los Angeles were treated to a crazy sight on Monday, March 18, right at about 7:30 PM.

I’ve had the privilege of watching about a dozen launches from my front yard. Last month’s was the best of them of all. The sunset makes the exhaust visible for hundreds of miles because of something called the twilight phenomenon. (Sunset launches are also somewhat rare, at least here in Southern California.)

That made the rocket’s flight visible to folks as far away as Arizona and Utah.

Here’s where you can watch the live stream of tonight’s launch.

Where to Look

Keep your eyes peeled toward the west-southwest. (Hint: it’s where the sun sets.)

Folks at the LAX Delta Sky Clubs — especially T3 — should have a good view. The C and D gates in Vegas might get a decent view, too.

The live stream is generally about 10 seconds delayed. I’m in the San Fernando Valley and usually see rockets about a minute or so after launching.

You might see some jetliners flying at altitude and think one of them is a rocket. Trust me: you’ll know it when you see it!

Sound Familiar?

I wrote a post last Thursday alerting people about a 7:30 PM rocket launch. That got scrubbed because of the weather, and so did Friday evening’s backup window. The weather was gross Saturday and Sunday night here in SoCal, so those were scrubbed, too. Right now, the forecast calls for favorable skies. I hope the wind continues to die down.

As I mentioned, I’ve watched about a dozen launches, and it never gets old. It’s so cool to see.

However, several launches have been pushed because of technical or weather conditions. For example, I watched a (I think) Tuesday launch that was originally scheduled for (maybe) the previous Sunday.

There have been other times the rockets launched just fine from Vandenberg but cloud cover here prevented us from seeing anything.

Fingers crossed! Let us know in the Comments section if you see it!