02-07-2025
SpaceX double launch lights up Florida sky, but most Volusia beachgoers don't notice
NEW SMYRNA BEACH — SpaceX kicked off July with a doubleheader.
On Tuesday, July 1, the aerospace company launched a weather satellite for the European Space Agency just shortly after 5 p.m.
Later, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 2, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 for a record-breaking Starlink mission.
However, the launches have become so frequent — with 10 rockets launched in June alone — that most people along New Smyrna Beach on Tuesday were unaware.
Robert and Kiersten Smyth were celebrating a baby gender reveal when they noticed the burning light in the sky.
'We had no idea,' said Keirsten Smyth, 37. 'We are taking it as a sign of good luck. I was just hoping it cleared so it could be a fully beautiful weather day and perfect launch.'
The Smyths, visiting from Texas, celebrated the gender reveal with a plane that towed a sign that read, 'Baby Smyth is a…' Then, the plane let out a blue powder, signaling a boy. It is the couple's first baby.
'It was exciting. It was very exciting,' she said. 'And it happened to come on our party day, so it just made it feel even more special.'
However, some beachgoers barely looked up.
Athena Padilla, 42, was one of many beachgoers enjoying the sun and sand of New Smyrna Beach when rocket lifted off.
'We were sitting here,' Padilla said. 'We thought we were listening to airplanes. We were like, 'Where are the airplanes?' but we saw smoke in the sky too. Didn't correlate it (to a launch) at all.'
Other beachgoers were poring over books or walking the opposite way and didn't notice anything.
One beachgoer who did watch the launch, Maybrie Chapman, 15, said it wasn't her first time.
Chapman watched a couple of launches while visiting her grandmother in Flagler County and around New Smyrna Beach, she said.
'It was cool,' Chapman said of a launch she previously watched. 'There was a lot of people watching.'
The first blastoff happened at 5:04 p.m. Tuesday as part of the Meteosat Third Generation program, according to Thales Group. The cargo on the Falcon 9 rocket, the MTG-S1, was a satellite designed to map Earth's atmosphere in 3D.
The second launch occurred at 2:28 a.m. early Wednesday. It also set a record for the Falcon 9 first stage booster, which has now successfully taken off and landed 29 times, reusing the booster each time, according to SpaceX.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia beachgoers barely notice SpaceX launch
