Watch SpaceX's first West Coast ground landing at 10:21PM ET
SpaceX may be an old hand at rocket landings by this point, but there
are still a few firsts left. The private spaceflight company is
launching Argentina's SAOCOM 1A satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base
at 10:21PM Eastern (7:21PM Pacific), and you'll want to watch what
happens on the way down. If all goes according to plan, this will be
SpaceX's first ground landing on the West Coast -- it used a drone ship
for California missions until now. You can start watching live on
YouTube (below) 15 minutes before takeoff.
Whether or not you're following the launch, you'll probably hear it if
you're a local. Vandenberg has warned people in Santa Barbara, San Luis
Obispo and Ventura counties that they might hear multiple sonic booms as
the Falcon 9's first stage touches down at the base's Landing Zone 4.
As The Verge noted, SpaceX hasn't been making sea landings by choice.
Elon Musk's company had leased a former Titan rocket launch site in 2015
to build its own landing pad, but it it hasn't received clearance. It's
landing on terra firma after successfully obtaining a license for the
pad this summer. You can expect more rocket landings after this, then.
Be ready for a sudden change in plans. There's no specified launch
window, and that could force SpaceX to move liftoff to October 11th if
it has to scrub the launch on the 7th.
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