Vero Beach residents who were startled by a loud, rattling noise on the evening of February 19 can rest assured: it was the sound of space exploration history in the making. Reports flooded in from across Indian River County and Port St. Lucie regarding a distinct sonic boom felt shortly after sunset.
The noise was generated by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:41 p.m. The mission successfully carried 29 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. While rocket launches are a common sight on the Treasure Coast, the sonic boom experienced this week was a result of the booster’s specific return trajectory.
According to the mission details, the auditory phenomenon is a direct result of the physics involved in recovering the rocket hardware.
During the landing, residents may have heard one or more sonic booms… This is because the booster is speeding back from space faster than sound.
For this specific mission, the booster targeted a landing on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Bahamas. This landing profile is notable for its location; it marks only the second time SpaceX has landed a booster this far south, with the previous occurrence taking place recently in February 2025.
As the aerospace industry continues to ramp up activity on the Space Coast, residents in Vero Beach can likely expect to see—and occasionally hear—more of these operations. For now, the successful deployment adds another cluster of satellites to the growing Starlink constellation, aiming to improve global internet coverage.
