The contrail from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch drifts over the Southern California sky as seen from Los Angeles’ Chinatown on March 18. In a legal dispute between Elon Musk and the California Coastal Commission over the number of rockets the billionaire’s company can launch from the coast, Gov. Military officials told the commission they expected to submit another request by March to increase the number of SpaceX launches to 100 a year. SpaceX and the commission have clashed for months over the company’s plan to rapidly increase the number of rockets it launches from Vandenberg. The commission has pointed out that 80% to 87% of SpaceX launches don’t carry government payloads, but instead carry Starlink satellites.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 22, 2024 17:21 UTC