Edhat Staff
UPDATE: This launch has been rescheduled for Monday, June 23. The 57-min launch window opens at 2:18 p.m.
SpaceX is targeting Sunday, June 22 for a Falcon 9 launch of the Transporter-14 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The 57-minute launch window opens at 2:18 p.m. PT. If needed, there is a backup opportunity on Monday, June 23 at the same time.
This will be the 26th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission which previously launched NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, SWOT, Transporter-8, Transporter-9, NROL-146, Bandwagon-2, NROL-153, NROL-192, and 15 Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9 will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
Transporter-14 is a dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. There are 70 payloads on this flight, including cubesats, microsats, re-entry capsules, and orbital transfer vehicles carrying three of those payloads to be deployed at a later time.
Business Insider spoke with 10 residents of communities near the Vandenberg Space Force Base whose reactions to the launches ranged from fascination to full-blown outrage at the thundering noise and rattling.
“These launches, especially at night, when everyone is asleep, are particularly disruptive,” Montecito resident A**** K***** told BI. “I’m in an older California bungalow, and things rattle and shake quite substantially.”
Each launch sets off a flurry of social media activity in which people express their excitement, anger, and hopelessness about the disruptions and potential environmental impacts.
The base has partnered with Kent Gee, a physics professor and acoustics engineer from Brigham Young University, to study the conditions and improve prediction accuracy.
In 2025, according to a statement by The Department of the Air Force, the company hopes to expand the types of launches to include its Falcon Heavy rockets, which the company says are larger than the Falcon 9 models and generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — equal to about 18 747 aircraft.
A spokesperson for the base told BI that up to 50 Falcon 9 launches have already been approved for Vandenberg in 2025. However, they said Falcon Heavy launches will not proceed until the forthcoming environmental impact statement has been reviewed and accepted by the Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment, and Energy.
SpaceX also aims to eventually phase out its Falcon-series rockets and replace them with launches of its Starship vessels, The Los Angeles Times reported in March.
A spokesperson for Vandenberg said the base is “not currently planning for Starship launches” from the west coast spaceport.
The results of Gee’s study at Vandenberg are not yet available. Gee said the researchers studying the impact “don’t really have enough data to understand what’s going on,” given that the booms from each launch change based on the meteorological conditions and weather patterns.
“It took decades of people’s experiences with airports and their noise impacts for engineers to learn how to quiet aircraft,” Gee said. “We’re just starting here and it will be an evolving situation for many years to come.”
A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration told BI that the agency requires SpaceX to maintain insurance in the event of claims of structural damage resulting from the flight of its vehicles. Property owners would contact SpaceX to submit claims and evidence in support of any damage claim, the spokesperson said.
On December 13, the Department of the Air Force announced it would prepare an environmental impact statement for SpaceX launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base to evaluate the potential impact of expanding Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches and landings. The final statement and any potential alternative plans are set to be published by the fall of 2025 at the earliest.
https://www.businessinsider.com/california-locals-fight-back-against-loud-disruptive-spacex-rocket-launches-2024-12?op=1
The Department of Air Force published a Notice of Availability on May 23, 2025, to announce the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and to initiate a 45-day public review and comment period, which closes July 7, 2025.
Congress recognizes that the Federal Government’s actions may cause significant environmental effects.
The public is invited to review the Draft EIS and provide substantive comments on the Proposed Action and the environmental analysis.
The public’s involvement is an important part of both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) processes.
This includes those effects that occur at the same time and place as the proposed action or alternatives and may include effects that occur later or are farther removed in distance from the proposed action or alternatives.
Impacts include ecological, aesthetic, historic, cultural, economic, social, or health impacts, whether adverse or beneficial.
It is important to note that human beings are part of the environment (indeed, that is why Congress used the phrase “human environment” in NEPA), so when an EIS is prepared and economic or social and natural or physical environmental effects are interrelated, the EIS should discuss all of these effects.
From the government guide on NEPA:
First, do not wait too long to raise your concerns; raise them as soon as practicable, and be mindful of the comment period and when it ends.
If you just sit back and hope that things will get “better” or that your comments will have greater effect later, you may hear that “you should have raised this sooner.”
At times, waiting can be detrimental to your interests as well as to the rest of the public and the agency involved.
For details/info refer to:
https://www.vsfbfalconlauncheis.com/
https://ceq.doe.gov/docs/get-involved/citizens-guide-to-nepa-2021.pdf
Submitting Public Comments
The DAF welcomes the public’s participation during the Draft EIS public review and comment period from May 23, 2025, through July 7, 2025.
Public comments may be submitted in the following ways:
• Via the online comment form
• By mail to:
ATTN: VSFB Falcon Launch EIS
c/o ManTech International Corporation
420 Stevens Avenue, Suite 100
Solana Beach, CA 92075
Go to the bottom of this link’s Edhat article to get deeper info & to see the recently released SUMMARY of PEOPLE’s COMMENTS SUBMITTED to the Space Force Base’s Environmental Impact Statement.
https://www.edhat.com/news/carbajal-introduces-bill-to-assist-communities-impacted-by-space-launch-noise/
Space-burial services announced the flight would have human remains. Our participants’ capsules will orbit the Earth and return via the Mission Possible capsule
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2025/06/23/spacex-transporter14-rideshare/8871750684037/
Celetsis, a Houston-based company behind space-burial services, announced the flight would also have a payload that is carrying over 150 flight capsules with DNA and human remains.
The payload from Celetsis will reach low Earth orbit and did two or three circuits around before re-entering the atmosphere. The capsules were then recovered from the Pacific Ocean and returned to the clients.
“Celestis is pleased to offer a new type of Earth Rise mission, thanks to The Exploration Company,” the company’s co-founder and CEO Charles Chafer, said in a statement. “Our participants’ capsules will orbit the Earth and return via the Mission Possible capsule, creating a spectacular liftoff and recovery experience.”