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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesStarship can create sonic booms when the vehicle travels faster than sound, because its motion produces shock waves in the atmosphere. The boom is not simply engine noise. Supersonic ascent and the return and landing phases are distinct cases: at Boca Chica, the FAA says the ascent boom it assessed occurs over water, while descent and landing booms may reach communities. Their potential reach depends on the site, flight path, vehicle event and atmospheric conditions. Management relies on modeling, flight and hazard-area planning, access controls and advance notices—not on eliminating the boom whenever a vehicle flies supersonically.
What causes a Starship sonic boom?
A sonic boom is the sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through air faster than sound. The FAA describes a boom trace as an impulsive event lasting less than 300 milliseconds. The shock waves are the cause; rocket engines also make noise, but that is not what defines a sonic boom. The FAA’s April 2025 Boca Chica environmental assessment explains the physics and evaluates site-specific boom exposure.
A boom can occur during different supersonic portions of a flight. It is therefore misleading to assume that every Starship launch produces the same boom over the same places. In the Boca Chica assessment, the FAA says the modeled ascent boom occurs over water and does not affect land; it separately evaluates booms associated with orbital launches and with Starship and Super Heavy returning toward their landing locations.
Could a Starship boom reach my area?
There is no single distance that applies to every Starship flight. The FAA’s modeled contours are approximate, and actual exposure at a location can shift with atmospheric, physical and operational conditions. Weather can change where maximum overpressure occurs, and the FAA says a location is unlikely to experience the maximum estimated overpressure more than once across multiple events. A contour is an estimate for a defined site and scenario, not a promise about what every future flight will sound like.
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Boca Chica: modeled Super Heavy landing boom
For the proposed Boca Chica action, the FAA used PCBOOM to estimate single-event descent levels. Its assessment reports that the modeled 1-pound-per-square-foot (psf) contour for a Super Heavy landing could extend about 24 miles from the launchpad. The modeled 6 psf contour extended about 10 miles from the pad; estimates could reach 10 psf at the southern tip of South Padre Island, Port Isabel, Tarpon Bend and northeast Tamaulipas. These are scenario-specific modeled values in the FAA’s April 2025 assessment, not measurements of every flight. See the FAA assessment.
The FAA uses the following comparisons to describe how people may perceive different levels: 0.2–0.3 psf might be heard by someone who expects it and is listening, 0.5 psf is more likely to be noticed, and 1 psf or more is certain to be noticed. The assessment compares 1 psf with a clap of thunder. These are the agency’s perception descriptions, not a guarantee of an individual’s experience; weather and operating parameters affect local exposure. The FAA’s assessment discusses the estimates and their limitations.
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Kennedy Space Center: a separate assessment
The FAA’s May 2025 assessment for the proposed LC-39A action at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) models a different site and mission profile. It places launch booms over the Atlantic about 34 nautical miles offshore and separately evaluates landing booms. Its modeled 1 psf contour reaches 29.6 miles over land for a Starship landing and 24.2 miles for a Super Heavy landing. These KSC distances should not be treated as Boca Chica estimates or compared without keeping the site, vehicle event and contour threshold attached. Read the FAA’s May 2025 KSC biological assessment.
How are sonic booms managed?
Management is about estimating where effects may occur, evaluating exposure, planning the operation and reducing surprise or access to hazard areas. These steps can help manage risk and community disruption, but they do not remove the shock waves produced during supersonic flight.
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- Model likely exposure. For the Boca Chica assessment, SpaceX used PCBOOM to estimate single-event descent levels. The FAA presents the resulting contours as approximate because actual conditions vary.
- Evaluate cumulative sound as well as individual events. The FAA assesses exposure using cumulative measures, including C-weighted day-night average noise level (CDNL), against applicable significance criteria. For the proposed Boca Chica action, it reports that the 60 dB CDNL contour extends about 5 miles from the vertical launch area and that no noise-sensitive areas fall within it. This is the FAA’s conclusion under its stated assessment framework; it does not mean no individual outside that contour can hear or be disturbed by a boom. The assessment describes the metric and analysis.
- Plan trajectories, landing regions and hazard areas. Where a vehicle flies and lands shapes potential exposure for people, aircraft and vessels. Environmental reviews assess proposed operations by site and mission profile. The FAA’s project page lists completed environmental reviews, but completion of a review does not by itself guarantee a launch license or modification. Check the FAA Starship project page for current review status and documents.
- Restrict access where operations require it. Flight hazard areas and access restrictions are coordinated with relevant authorities; at Boca Chica, the FAA describes coordination with local authorities over land closures. The FAA’s Starship FAQ explains access restrictions, hazard areas and coordination.
- Give communities advance notice. The FAA’s April 2025 assessment says SpaceX’s public notification plan would announce upcoming launches and landings through news outlets and law enforcement. It notes that a Starship landing boom may occur days or weeks after launch, so a later boom is not necessarily simultaneous with liftoff. The assessment states: “Announcements of upcoming Starship/Super Heavy launches and landings would serve to warn people about these noise events.” See the assessment’s discussion of notifications. In 2022, the FAA also announced more than 75 mitigation actions for the then-proposed Boca Chica program, including advance notice to surrounding communities about potential engine noise and sonic booms; that figure describes the historical announcement, not a count of current requirements. Read the FAA’s 2022 announcement.
What do the assessments say about people and wildlife?
For the proposed Boca Chica action, the FAA says adverse human-health impacts are not anticipated under the modeled scenario. Its assessment also summarizes studies reporting human exposure to sonic booms of up to 100 psf without adverse consequences. That is the FAA’s characterization of the studies it cites, not a universal medical guarantee for every person, exposure pattern or future operation. The FAA assessment sets out its conclusion.
Wildlife effects depend on the animal, setting and exposure pathway. In its KSC biological assessment, the FAA notes that animals can startle and may show behavioral responses. For marine effects, the assessment says little energy from in-air noise is transmitted into water, with surface reflection and attenuation reducing underwater exposure; the associated marine assessment concludes that the evaluated boom levels are not expected to affect species beneath the surface. These conclusions concern the assessed conditions and underwater pathway, not every possible effect on wildlife. See the KSC biological assessment and the associated marine assessment.
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