A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink satellites launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday, July 18, 2025.

A SpaceX launch scheduled on Tuesday morning could create a large sonic boom heard across Southern California, officials advise. The Falcon 9 launch of NASA's TRACERS mission, which will take place at Vandenberg Space Force Base's Space Launch Complex 4 East, is scheduled at 11:13 a.m. with an 57-minute long launch window.

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TRACERS will launch for a low-Earth orbit of 367 miles (590 kilometers) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket alongside three additional NASA missions. These include the Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) SmallSat, which will demonstrate a new way of more efficiently placing remote-sensing (or rather, Earth-observing) instruments into orbit.

A sonic boom might announce the return of a SpaceX spacecraft from the International Space Station before it splashes down off the California coast.