Military officials are pushing back against demands by a state agency to better monitor and mitigate the effects of rocket launches and sonic booms from Vandenberg Space Force Base, frustrating local officials and raising tensions between the U.S. Space Force and the state agency charged with preserving California’s coastline.
SpaceX, a leading Space Force contractor, wants to rapidly increase the number of rockets launched from the military base in Santa Barbara County. The company has not sought commission approval, however; instead, Space Force officials have been negotiating with the California Coastal Commission for months over a plan to allow 36 launches at the base this year — six times more than the previous agreement allowed.
As part of those talks, the state commission asked the Space Force to more closely track and document how the booms affect wildlife and to consider ways to reduce the damage caused by sonic booms. The commission cannot impose its will on the military; it can only ask the Space Force to cooperate.
At Thursday's commission meeting, what is usually a quiet monthly session turned tense after military officials rejected additional monitoring and mitigation, and Space Force officials declined to answer questions.
The commission members were visibly upset.
“I am beyond angry,” said Commissioner Susan Lowenberg. “I don’t understand why our own government would mock another branch of our government.”
Commissioner Kristina Kunkel said, “I hope this commission will not be intimidated into ignoring environmental protections.”
The jarring meeting came two months after Space Force officials first admitted that sonic booms from rocket launches at the base regularly jarred residents and wildlife along about 100 miles of coastline in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Recent changes in rocket trajectories have made sonic booms more common for inland residents, and Space Force officials have said they are looking to significantly increase the number of rocket blasts each year.
That sharp rise is being driven primarily by Elon Musk's SpaceX. The company is currently headquartered in Hawthorne, but Musk says those offices are destined for Texas.
A spokesman for Vandenberg Space Force Base told The Times that the change of venue has no effect on the number of rocket launches SpaceX plans to do from the California base. By 2026, SpaceX still plans to launch more than 90 rockets there.
On Thursday, the state commission approved the increased launches with new requirements for the Space Force to increase wildlife monitoring on and off base and analyze the effects that sonic booms have on wildlife such as southern sea otters, California red-legged frogs, western snowy plovers and California least terns.
The seven conditions the commission sought to impose included requiring a written plan to minimize the impact and range of sonic booms, a lighting management plan for nighttime launches that would limit the range of lights aimed at beach areas, and measures to provide more information about the launches and their effects to beach visitors and the fishing industry.
The Space Force is already responsible for monitoring the effects of launches at the ground-based facility, but commission officials insist the significantly increased number of rocket launches and the effects of sonic booms reaching more than 100 miles off the California coast are a significant change from the base’s past activities and call for broader protections.
Several of the commissioners said their intention was not to discourage rocket launches but to track the effects they could have on the coast.
“We don’t want to stop the rockets, we don’t want to stop their satellites, and we certainly don’t want to cause any kind of defense problem,” said Commissioner Dayna Bochco, visibly upset. “But this is ridiculous.”
Vandenberg officials said Thursday they are already taking steps to safeguard the shoreline.
“Our goal is to strike a balance between our mission requirements and state regulators,” said Col. Dorian C. Hatcher, vice commander for base operations. “We are protecting the environment at Vandenberg. We do this and we do it continually because we are committed stewards, responsible members of the community and we recognize that it is not just our responsibility, but our duty.”
But as they have in previous meetings, Space Force officials rejected demands for increased surveillance and mitigation. That rejection, along with their refusal to answer questions Thursday, appeared to put the state agency on a collision course with the Defense Department.
“The Space Force came here and intentionally disrespected us,” Bochco said. “That’s OK. I disrespect them sometimes, too.”
But it remains unclear what that will mean going forward and whether base officials intend to comply with the monitoring despite their previous objections. The Space Force has the authority to move forward with rocket launches without reaching an agreement with the coastal commission.
As part of its duty to protect the state’s coastal resources, the commission issues or denies permits for developments, but it cannot deny a plan by the Department of Defense or another federal agency to use federal property near the coast. Instead, the commission is tasked with reaching an agreement with the feds to mitigate issues such as beach access and potential harm to marine life.
According to a report by the commission staff, the Air Force's position is that base officials already monitor wildlife and environmental effects in accordance with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Marine Mammal Protection Agency requirements. But, citing equipment failures and other errors, the commission staff argued that past Space Force monitoring efforts have resulted in significant data gaps and that the force's reports lack analysis of the effects of launches on wildlife on and off base.
The staff also pointed to the military's recent admission that sonic booms from rocket launches are more frequent and affect a much wider area of the coast than previously acknowledged.
Cassidy Teuffel, deputy director of the commission, said Thursday that Vandenberg's staff has pushed back on efforts to increase wildlife monitoring, largely out of concerns about cost.
“What’s more expensive than destroying the environment and then trying to fix it?” Bochco said before turning off her microphone on Thursday. “I’m disgusted.”
The relationship between the Space Force and the state commission already appeared strained when Space Force officials first approached the commission in May 2023 about increasing the number of rocket launches to 36 from the previously agreed-upon limit of six.
Long before the application was filed, SpaceX had already exceeded the number of permitted rocket launches. By 2022, the company had conducted 13 launches from Vandenberg.
Commission staff is also considering requiring SpaceX to seek permits for its commercial, nonmilitary, launches at Vandenberg, rather than having Space Force seek an agreement for all launches on the grounds that the company is a government contractor.
According to commission staff, only 13% to 20% of SpaceX launches have involved Defense Department activities. The vast majority, instead, have been for commercial purposes, primarily for Musk’s Starlink satellite-based broadband provider.
Vandenberg officials have argued that all SpaceX launches benefit the Department of Defense, not just because the Department of Defense uses Starlink systems, but because SpaceX's ability to quickly launch more rockets into space benefits Department of Defense goals.
During previous committee hearings, Space Force officials also downplayed questions about sonic booms, telling commissioners that their models had recorded sonic booms primarily over the Channel Islands. It was during the committee hearings that residents began reporting they were experiencing sonic booms as far away as Los Angeles County.
Base officials later said recent changes in rocket trajectories had diverted some sonic booms over the mainland, making them possible to hear and feel along about 100 miles of coastline.
Bochco said the Space Force had been “misleading” about the sonic booms and was unwilling to work with the state agency.
“They don’t want to monitor, they don’t want to know the impacts, I guess because they’re not going to do it,” he said.
