SpaceX Significant Impacts

LOMPOC VALLEY CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

Finding of Significant Impact

For

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Operations,

Current and Future

Vandenberg Space Force Base, California

Background

For hundreds of years, Lompoc Valley has been a peaceful, rural, agricultural location. Then a few years ago Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) moved in.

Recently, the United States Space Force (USSF) as the lead agency, has authorized SpaceX to launch their Falcon 9 rocket vehicle from Vandenberg SFB up to 100 times per year. USSF has also currently-authorized 12 first stage landings at SLC-4W on Vandenberg per year. This authorization is in blatant disregard of the long known facts and community costs explained below.
While it is true hundreds of Air Force missiles have been launched from Vandenberg AFB since 1958, these missiles were only 10% to 25% the size of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Even worse, SpaceX launches 10 times more often, PLUS creates large sonic booms. SpaceX produces at least 80 times more noise and house damage impacts, than past missile launches.

Purpose and Need

Lompoc Valley residents are posting these facts in order to maintain their health, their income, the property value of their residence, and sanity.

Public Health

The general public health is adversely affected by SpaceX Falcon night launches and landings.

According to two online surveys (1, 2), 65% of respondents report being woken up at night by Falcon launches. Falcon launches produce over 90 dBA sound level in Lompoc (3). Inside noise level is over 75 dBA (4). Government recommends 45 dB inside for proper sleep. (5)

The FAA 65 DNL all day average outdoor recommendation is not applicable in the Falcon launch case. This standard assumes a more or less continuous noise, not a big one time noise like a Falcon launch produces.

The SEL (Sound Exposure Level) is a more accurate metric of determining sleep disturbance for rocket launches. The Federal Government FICAN study (6, Fig. 3.2) noted that at 90 SEL db, half of residents wake up, consistent with the online surveys (1,2).

An even higher percentage of residents are woken up by the landing sonic boom which has three times the sound energy of launch noise

(7, Table 1).

The problem with being woken up at night is you don’t just go back to sleep. Sleeping consists of multiple cycles, and each cycle serves a different restorative purpose (8). Earlier cycles restore muscle and bone, repair tissues, and strengthen the immune system. Later cycles restore alertness and brain function. Being startled awake during these cycles negates much of the benefit they normally provide, and especially leads to impaired cognitive ability the next day. The negative physical, mental, and economic impacts of sleep deprivation are well documented.

From 2024 thru March 2025, SpaceX launched their Falcon 24 times during sleep hours (10 PM to 7 AM).
They are proposing to soon launch up to 30 times a year at night.

An additional problem is the night landing sonic boom. The sudden impact of a 2 psf shock wave startles many people awake. A number of people have reported rapid heart beat as a result. In order to prevent this rapid heart beat startle effect, some have resorted to staying awake until after the landing sonic boom. This means many hours of lost sleep.

The Falcon 9 FT develops 1.7 million pounds of thrust which makes it very loud. The only rocket larger launched at night from Vandenberg in the past was Titan IV, and then only twice, 9 years apart.

Pet impact

The sudden loud noises greatly upset dogs and other pets with sensitive hearing. This has caused pet injuries and deaths with associated human owner emotional distress. There have been reports of pet heart attacks.

Property Damage

The sonic booms, and sonic wave vibrations resulting from SpaceX Falcon launch and landing operations, are causing considerable Lompoc Valley property damage.

While limited to 12 per year, sonic booms of 1.0 psf to 2.0 psf have been recognized by court proceedings to cause property damage (9).

Additionally, the low frequency launch engine noise waveform of 30 to 40 Hz (7, Fig.7) also happens to be near the resonance frequency of house walls (10). This means the repeated, long duration launch sonic wave vibrations are damaging house walls in Lompoc. There are dozens of reports of house damage caused by Falcon launch and landing operations on social media. For example see (11). This vibration resonance effect is similar to an opera singer breaking glass.

Economics

A) USSF touts the local increased economic activity. But most of this goes to local business owners. The only benefit for the average resident is a small 1% at most property value increase.

B) Loss of property value.

On the opposite side, a home property calculator (12) was used to determine loss of property value due to additional noise. Going from 55 Ldn to 85 decreases home value 11%. Admittedly the 85 dBA is not produced every day, but even divided by 100 launches (days) per year results in a 3% property value decrease.

C) Property damages.
Estimated direct damage to thousands of properties from SpaceX launches to date is $50 to $80 million.
See (11), picture and story below for an examples. Cost to rebuild just this one wall to endure repeated launch vibrations without cracking is $20,000. Times thousands of houses. The total damage amount will increase with further launches and increased launch rate as additional vibration stress accumulates. To date, SpaceX has not compensated homeowners for any of these damages.

D) Lost sleep damages.
Currently about 30,000 people lose sleep benefits for every SpaceX night launch. There were 26 night launches from 2024 thru 2026. An additional 20,000 lose sleep benefits for every night landing. There were six night landings in 2024-2026. Total lost sleep for Lompoc Valley residents since 2024 due to SpaceX launches and landings were about 820,000 nights. Compensation for one night lost sleep averages about $200.
Thus SpaceX has caused $180 million in lost sleep damages since 2024.

E) Net economic losses.
Thru April 2, 2026, $230 to $260 million has been lost by Lompoc residents from SpaceX launches due to loss of sleep, and property damages.

These losses will increase with each launch, and will multiply with an increased launch rate if nothing changes.
Additionally, for 100 launches per year, property value loss from increased noise would be $150 million (2% average value loss), plus $250 to $300 million per year in loss of sleep damages and property damages, for a total of $400 to $450 million annually.

SpaceX Commercial Profits

SpaceX is a commercial for profit Corporation. 90% of their VSFB launches are for commercial or foreign payloads. Only about 6% are for the US military. According to Motley Fool, their estimated 2024 profit was $4.2 billion (13). At least $1 billion of that amount is from Vandenberg operations.

Alternatives

Multiple satellite constellations like Starlink with multiple orbital planes have flexibility in choosing day or evening launch time by launching during a certain 8 or 10 month period.

To eliminate sonic boom damage and noise impacts, SpaceX can conduct all landings on the drone ship.

Conclusion

SpaceX and USSF should adopt the alternatives detailed above:
1. All landings on drone ship.

2. Schedule specific payload launch date and time for the months where launch window is during day or evening hours. Limit nighttime launches to only those needed for immediate national security requirements. For any other unavoidable night launches, the community should be compensated $6 million per launch.

3. Create a $100 million annual compensation fund for property damage caused by sonic wave vibrations. If launch rate increases past 100, the fund level needs to be proportionally increased.

4. Create a multiple channel warning system of upcoming launches, so residents can protect their pets if desired.
5. Fund Lompoc area public improvements to offset the time and nuisance of having to protect pets during launch activities.

References:

Launch 94 db - Made with Clipchamp_1741809396209.mp4

Falcon 9 launch 94 dBA outside

Inside 76 dBA - Made with Clipchamp_1742526666204.mp4

76 dBA inside. Note window vibrations also.

All of the stucco cracks are on the same wall that face the launch pad. There are no cracks on the other 3 walls of the house.

When we bought our house in Providence Landing 2 years ago, we had all of the stucco cracks professionally fixed. Since then, 2 of the cracks from the windows have opened back up again and are deeper and thicker than before.

During the last launch which went straight up in the air and then the booster came back down, we could feel the wall shaking more aggressively than usual and we could hear our house making cracking sounds!

It’s all very upsetting as our plan is to eventually retire here…not sure if that’s the best long term plan under the circumstances. SpaceX is definitely responsible for the ongoing damage to our home. Without the launches, there would be no major cracks like we have. The stucco guy said that our whole wall should probably be sanded down and new stucco done from top to bottom. That is expensive, so we haven’t done it.