What has become a familiar sight along California’s central and southern coast — a Falcon 9 rocket rising from Vandenberg Space Force Base — reached a milestone Friday morning, as SpaceX’s latest launch set a new annual record for the site.

The rocket launched at 7:06 a.m. out of Santa Barbara County and carried 28 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit, marking Vandenberg’s 52nd launch of the year.

As always, there was a possibility that residents across SoCal could hear or feel one or more sonic booms, which occur when the rocket booster travels faster than the speed of sound during its return to Earth. After stage separation, in this case, the booster landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

This Starlink mission just surpasses Vandenberg’s r

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