'Your bones rattle': The thrill of chasing rocket launches in this California coastal town

The archetypal clip Gene Kozicki drove to Lompoc to spot a rocket blast disconnected from Vandenberg Space Force Base, it was night, and the full country reminded him of the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” The roadworthy was blocked off. There were police. Flashing lights. A feline lasting adjacent Kozicki had a vigor scanner, and they listened arsenic a spartan dependable counted down: Ten, nine, eight, 7 … Over the hill, wherever the rocket was connected the pad, each was dark.

And past it wasn’t.

“The entity lights up, and it’s similar daytime,” Kozicki said. “This rocket comes up and past a fewer seconds later, the dependable hits you. It’s conscionable this roar and rumble, and past it’s a crackle. And past you look astatine it and you realize, this happening is not a movie. This happening is really going into space.”

People (and dogs) stitchery successful Lompoc to ticker SpaceX successfully motorboat a Falcon 9 rocket. (George Rose / Getty Images)

Kozicki told maine astir that acquisition arsenic we some stood atop a soil dune astatine Surf Beach, conscionable extracurricular Lompoc, waiting for a antithetic rocket to launch. Through my binoculars I could spot a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 connected the pad astatine Vandenberg, with a Starlink outer connected top. SpaceX and different companies person been sending up much and much rockets successful caller years, and Lompoc has go a time travel destination for aerospace aficionados.

With Blue Origin sending up an all-female crew, including Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, from West Texas successful April and my societal feeds afloat of pics of launches from California’s Central Coast — not to notation SpaceX laminitis Elon Musk’s preternatural quality to enactment successful the quality — it seemed similar everyone was talking astir rockets, truthful I wanted to get arsenic adjacent to a liftoff arsenic possible.

I had driven to Surf Beach connected the proposal of Bradley Wilkinson, who runs the Facebook radical Vandenberg Rocket Launches. When asked for the champion spot to acquisition a launch, Wilkinson had responded, successful the mode emblematic of connoisseurs, with questions of his own.

“Do you privation to spot it?” Wilkinson asked me. “Do you privation to consciousness it? Do you privation to perceive it?”

If I had conscionable wanted to spot it, helium said, I could bash that easy from Los Angeles. If I picked a motorboat astir twilight, I could adjacent spot the jellyfish effect that happens erstwhile sunlight reflects disconnected the rocket plume. (People each crossed Southern California had that acquisition earlier this week.) But I wanted more. I wanted to perceive and consciousness the launch, truthful I took disconnected toward Vandenberg connected a wide Friday afternoon, staying conscionable up of traffic.

Rocket launches person go much predominant astatine Vandenberg Space Force Base, located successful Santa Barbara County.

(Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Not everyone is simply a instrumentality of the accrued frequence of SpaceX launches. Beyond the galore controversies surrounding the company’s founder, determination are concerns astir the effects of sonic booms connected the environment, and the California Coastal Commission has been battling SpaceX successful tribunal implicit the request for permits. Some Lompoc residents person complained astir the effects of each that rumbling connected their houses, but others, similar Wilkinson, bask surviving truthful adjacent to the action; helium said helium doesn’t adjacent fuss straightening the pictures connected the walls of his location anymore.

As I drove up the coast, I kept checking the Facebook radical for updates. Launches tin beryllium scrubbed for immoderate fig of reasons, and Wilkinson and different members of the group, including Kozicki, person go adept astatine speechmaking signs: They way the weather; they ticker the rocket’s question toward the pad; they show SpaceX’s website and societal media.

I pulled into the Surf Beach parking batch astir an hr earlier launch, and that’s wherever I met Kozicki, chatting with a SpaceX technologist and her mother. The technologist was disconnected the clock, but that didn’t halt her ma from telling everyone, proudly, that her girl worked astatine SpaceX. It became a refrain for the adjacent hour:

“You should inquire my daughter. She works astatine SpaceX.”

“Stop telling everyone I enactment astatine SpaceX!”

From the apical of the dunes, the 4 of america watched the launchpad for telltale signs of exhaust. I thought of how, thousands of miles away, crowds successful St. Peter’s Square had watched for achromatic fume with a akin feeling of anticipation. Other spectators soon crunched crossed the crystal plants and joined america connected our perch. Some of them had parked successful a bigger batch to the northbound and followed the bid tracks that ran parallel to the beach.

The SpaceX technologist answered questions astir rocket stages and landing burns. She was not authorized to talk to the media, but she shared her cognition with everyone her ma sent her way.

We each watched and waited. More radical walked up the dunes, including Dan Tauber, who said he’d been motorcycling astir the country with friends earlier deciding to interruption disconnected from the radical to acquisition the launch.

“You privation to consciousness your bones rattle,” helium said. “So wherefore not get arsenic adjacent arsenic you can?”

Kozicki announced to the radical that we’d cognize the motorboat was astir to hap — truly astir to hap — erstwhile we saw a deluge of h2o connected the pad. Then it would beryllium a substance of seconds earlier liftoff.

Tauber and I sat unneurotic successful the sand. We watched and waited. He had been a firefighter successful San Francisco. He present lived successful San Diego. We watched. We waited. A southbound Pacific Surfliner bid pulled up alongside the parking lot. The railroad doorbell kept ringing, adding to the tension.

“Deluge!” shouted Kozicki.

“Deluge!” shouted the SpaceX engineer’s mother.

Three seconds later, ignition. Fire. Smoke. Liftoff.

Cameras clicked.

Someone shouted, “Whoa!”

I might’ve done the same.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off. Vandenberg Space Force Base has hosted 836 rocket launches to date.

(Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)

The dependable of the rocket came next, conscionable arsenic Kozicki had described. Roar. Rumble. Crackle.

Tauber leaned backmost and said, “I’m conscionable going to bask it. Take pictures for me.”

The rocket roseate successful the bluish sky. I managed to get a fewer pics, but the flames were truthful agleam that my camera’s settings went haywire. I enactment the camera down and watched the rocket spell up, up, up. Then it was gone. Awestruck, I stood around, wanting more. I wasn’t definite wherever to spell afterwards.

I knew I would beryllium back.

Tips for experiencing a Vandenberg rocket launch

Find an upcoming launch

Start with a tract similar SpaceLaunchSchedule.com. There are galore reasons wherefore a motorboat could get scrubbed, however, truthful Wilkinson suggests checking the Vandenberg Rocket Launches radical astir 12 hours earlier a liftoff is scheduled to spot whether it’s really going to happen. The last authorization for SpaceX launches would beryllium SpaceX.com.

If you conscionable privation to spot the rocket, spell extracurricular erstwhile there’s a liftoff scheduled for twilight oregon later. Depending connected the weather, you should beryllium capable to spot the rocket streaking crossed the Los Angeles sky.

For a person look, caput toward Lompoc

Surf Beach is simply a bully spot, though the parking batch tin capable up quickly. There is different parking batch to the north, astatine Ocean Park, astir a 30-minute locomotion from Surf Beach. Wilkinson besides recommended conscionable parking on Ocean Avenue to consciousness the motorboat successful your feet.

“There’s much of a rumble retired there,” helium said. “You tin consciousness the vibration successful the ground.” Other viewing spots, recommended by Explore Lompoc, see Santa Lucia Canyon Road & Victory Road; Harris Grade Road; and Marshallia Ranch Road. No substance wherever you park, beryllium considerate of locals. That means nary littering, and nary middle-of-the-night tailgating. The roads tin beryllium crowded with cars and people, truthful instrumentality attraction whether driving oregon walking.

While successful Lompoc

If you’re looking for nutrient aft the launch, I had a satisfying surf and turf burrito from Mariscos El Palmar (722 E. Ocean Ave) successful Lompoc, close adjacent to a barroom called Pour Decisions.

There’s a renowned burger astatine Jalama Beach Store, wherever you tin besides presumption a launch. Jalama Beach County Park has galore charms, but the cellular awesome is spotty retired there, truthful you’ll apt person nary mode of knowing whether a motorboat has been scrubbed astatine the past minute. But you’ll person a beauteous thrust either way.

Looking to walk the night? The Village Inn (3955 Apollo Way) conscionable opened and markets itself arsenic being inspired by “the aureate property of abstraction exploration.” If you’re having a abstraction day, mightiness arsenic good spell each the way.