Falcon 9 launch (w/ sonic boom) from Vandenberg AFB carrying Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite

Corrections/clarifications:
1. The contrail and the shock cone are not the same thing. The turbulent contrail left behind the ascending rocket's exhaust is not a supersonic effect, merely the rocket crossing into a different layer of air with different relative humidity where the spent fuel makes a cloud of condensation.
2. The smooth cylindrical cloud that is momentarily shed by the rocket before the contrail starts (freeze frame and center of video thumbnail), I believe marks the crossing of Mach 1. It's almost exactly a minute into the flight, when the booster SHOULD reach Mach 1, and it's clearly generated by the geometry of the rocket rather than the exhaust interacting with the atmosphere. The fact that the contrail also starts just above this altitude I believe is coincidental.

Living near a spaceport has its perks! (Even if they don't launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base very often)

This morning I got up early to drive out to Lompoc and stand in a field with a probably a couple thousand fellow space nuts to watch a Falcon 9 rocket blast off, and for its first stage booster to return. It looks like the mission went off without a hitch, and it was a pretty awesome sight to see! This is the first time I've tried to film video of a rocket launch, and I was farther away than expected (The road I wanted to park on was already barricaded off and full of people by the time I got there), so my tracking isn't perfect, and I actually expected the rocket to be coming up over a completely different hill because last time I watched I was in a different spot. ANYWAYS, I think it came out pretty well, and I hope you enjoy!

Thankfully most of the good crowd reaction noises and the fantastic rocket noise were distinct, so I shifted back the audio track for the rocket so you can hear it in "real time" with the video. Of course, as the rocket rapidly lifts miles into the air, and returns many miles to the ground, this is a bit kludgey as the time delay is ever-changing, but I tried.

#falcon9 #spacex #nasa

Music in this video:
I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626

Видео Falcon 9 launch (w/ sonic boom) from Vandenberg AFB carrying Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite канала AlphaPhoenix