Military officials are rejecting a state agency’s demand to better monitor and mitigate the effects of rocket launches and sonic booms from Vandenberg Space Force Base, frustrating local officials and raising tensions between the state agency tasked with protecting the California coast and the U.S. Space Force.
SpaceX, a major contractor with the Space Force, wants to sharply increase the number of rockets it launches from the military base in Santa Barbara County. However, the company isn’t seeking commission approval; instead, Space Force officials have been negotiating for months with the California Coastal Commission on a plan to allow 36 launches at the base this year — six times more than the previous agreement allowed.
As part of those talks, the state commission asked the Space Force to monitor and document how the blasts affect wildlife and consider ways to minimize harm from sonic booms. The commission cannot impose its will on the military — it can only ask the Space Force to cooperate.
The commission’s Thursday meeting, typically a placid monthly session, grew tense when military officials rejected additional monitoring and mitigation, and Space Force officials refused to answer questions.
The commission members were visibly annoyed.
“I’m very outraged,” said Commissioner Susan Lowenberg. “I don’t understand why our own government is poking its nose into another branch of our government.”
“I hope this commission won’t be forced to ignore environmental protections,” Commissioner Christina Kunkel said.
The controversial meeting comes two months after Space Force officials first acknowledged the incident. Sonic Boom Sounds from rocket launches at the base were regularly disturbing residents and wildlife along about 100 miles of coast in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Recent changes in rocket trajectories have made sonic booms more common for inland residents, and Space Force officials have said they want to significantly increase the number of rocket blasts each year.
This rapid growth is being fueled primarily by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The company is currently headquartered in Hawthorne, but according to Musk, They’re bound for the office in Texas,
A Vandenberg Space Force Base spokesperson told the Times that the headquarters move will have no effect on the number of rocket launches SpaceX conducts from the California base. By 2026, SpaceX still plans to launch more than 90 rockets there.
On Thursday, the state commission approved the increase in launches along with new requirements for the Space Force to increase monitoring of wildlife inside and outside the base and analyze the impacts of the sonic booms on wildlife, such as southern sea otters, California red-legged frogs, western snowy plovers and California least terns.
The seven conditions the commission sought to impose included requiring a written plan to minimise the impact and access of sonic booms, a lighting management plan for night launches that would limit access to beachfront lights, and steps to provide more information about the launches and their impacts to beach visitors and the fishing industry.
The Space Force already is responsible for monitoring the effects of launches on base lands, but commission officials say the significantly increased number of rocket launches and the effects of sonic booms reaching more than 100 miles of the California coast are a significant change from the base’s previous activities and demand broader protections.
Several commissioners said their purpose was not to prevent the launching of the rockets, but to find out what effect they might have on the coast.
“We don’t want to intercept rockets, we don’t want to intercept their satellites, and we certainly don’t want to enable any kind of defense problem,” Commissioner Dana Bochco said, visibly upset.
On Thursday, Vandenberg officials said they were already taking steps to protect the coast.
“Our goal is to find a balance between the requirements of our mission and those of state regulators,” said Col. Dorian C. Hatcher, vice commander for operations at the base. “We are protecting the environment at Vandenberg. We do so and continue to do so because we are committed custodians, responsible members of the community and understand that this is not only our responsibility, but a duty.”
However, as in previous meetings, Space Force officials rejected demands for additional oversight and mitigation. That rejection, along with its refusal to answer questions on Thursday, has put the state agency on a collision course with the Defense Department.
“Space Force came here and intentionally insulted us,” Bochco said. “That’s okay. Sometimes I insult you too.”
But what this will mean going forward, and whether base officials intend to comply with the monitoring despite their previous objections, is still unclear. The Space Force has the authority to proceed with rocket launches without an agreement with the Coastal Commission.
As part of its duty to protect the state’s coastal resources, the commission issues or denies permits for development. But the commission cannot reject a plan by the Department of Defense or another federal agency to use federal property near the coast. Instead, the commission is tasked with negotiating compromises with the federal government to mitigate issues such as access to beaches and potential harm to marine life.
According to a report by commission staff, the Air Force says base officials already monitor wildlife and environmental impacts in accordance with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Marine Mammal Protection requirements. But citing equipment failures and other errors, commission staff argued that previous monitoring efforts by the Space Force have resulted in significant gaps in the data, and the force’s report does not contain an analysis of the launches’ impacts on wildlife inside and outside the base.
Staff also pointed to the military’s recent acknowledgment that sonic blasts from rocket launches are occurring more frequently and affecting a wider area of the coast than previously believed.
Commission Deputy Director Cassidy Teufel said Thursday that Vandenberg staff has pushed back efforts to increase wildlife monitoring, mainly because of concerns about cost.
“What could be more expensive than destroying the environment and then trying to fix it?” Bochco said Thursday, before his microphone’s audio was cut off. “I’m disappointed.”
Relations between the Space Force and the state commission already appeared to be strained when Space Force officials first approached the commission in May 2023 about increasing the number of rocket launches from the previously agreed limit of six to 36.
SpaceX had already exceeded the number of allowed rocket launches long before the request was submitted. In 2022, the company had 13 launches from Vandenberg.
Commission staff is also considering the possibility of requiring SpaceX to seek permits for its commercial, non-military launches at Vandenberg, while requiring the Space Force to consent to all launches on the grounds that the company is a government contractor.
According to commission staff, only about 13% to 20% of SpaceX’s launches have involved Defense Department activity. Instead, most launches have been for commercial purposes, primarily for Musk’s Starlink satellite-based broadband provider.
Vandenberg officials have argued that all SpaceX launches benefit the Defense Department, not only because the Defense Department uses the Starlink system, but because SpaceX’s ability to launch more rockets into space quickly is beneficial to Defense Department goals.
During previous commission hearings, Space Force officials also dodged questions about sonic booms, telling commissioners that their models showed sonic booms occurring mostly over the Channel Islands. It was during the commission hearings that residents began reporting that they were experiencing sonic booms even in areas as far away as Los Angeles County.
Base officials later reported that recent changes in the rocket trajectory had caused some sound blasts to appear on the mainland, making them possible to be heard and felt up to about 100 miles away.
Bochco said the Space Force is providing “misleading” information about the sonic boom and is unwilling to work with the state agency.
“They don’t want to monitor, they don’t want to trace the impacts, I believe it’s because they’re not going to do it,” he said.
