Rockets make a lot of noise when they launch. That’s a given fact, and part of life for Space Coast residents.

There is a rocket launch from the Cape every few days, and depending how close one is the launch pad, the sound is like distant thunder that fades away after a minute or two, or, for some who live much closer to the launch site, the initial noise of a launch is much more thunderous. Some claim that those launch sounds are intense enough to cause damage to their property.

Depending on the launch trajectory and weather conditions, a SpaceX Falcon 9’s rumble on liftoff can be heard as far away as Melbourne, some 33 miles from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral. Other towns closer to the launch pad will also hear the sound, of course, and at varying levels. When that same booster returns to land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1, the sonic boom is even louder in many areas, with some saying that in Rockledge the sonic boom is louder than what one might experience in Titusville.

New Study

That in mind, Space Coast residents may find results from a new study released in November in the Journal of the Acoustic Society of America interesting: in it, the authors measured ambient sounds in several different locations surrounding a Starship Heavy launch in Boca Chica, and they found that the sound pressure from the huge new rocket to be a great deal louder than current rockets, such as a Falcon 9:

Starship launch noise to Space Launch System and Falcon 9 shows that Starship is substantially louder; the far-field noise produced during a Starship launch is at least ten times that of Falcon 9.

_{Starship super heavy acoustics: Far-field noise measurements during launch and the first-ever booster catch, Gee, et. al, Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, November 15, 2024}

The study found that:

• The town of Port Isabel (∼10 km/6.2 mi) saw a maximum of ∼105 dB SPL.
• The town of Laguna Vista (∼20 km/12.4 mi) sees a maximum of ~90 dB SPL.
• At 10km (6.2 miles) and 20 km (12.4 miles), the booster flyback boom results in a [SPL] of about 125 and 110 dB SPL, respectively.

110 dB SPL is roughly that of being in a room with a trombone.

What About Starship Compared to SLS?

Also in the paper, a comparison of Starship and SLS noise impacts was made. The result?

“Although it is difficult to identify trends across metric, vehicle, and distance, the most important conclusion […] is that a Starship launch represents a substantially greater noise source than SLS and Falcon 9. A look across the four metrics and two distances for SLS relative to Starship suggests that a Starship launch is the equivalent of 4–6 SLS launches in terms of noise impact, despite SLS producing more than half of Starship’s thrust. “

Starship super heavy acoustics: Far-field noise measurements during launch and the first-ever booster catch, Gee, et. al, Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, November 15, 2024

That’s a lot of noise.

We’ve Heard This Before: Saturn V Made A Lot of Noise In Its Day

Probably the loudest rocket ever launched on the Space Coast was the Saturn V. The huge moon rocket was known to physically shake buildings and the ground within five miles or so from the launch pad, and one of the first things old-timers mention when they talk about a Saturn V it how loud it was. The published measurements from the time back that up as well.

The 194-200 dB SPL of noise of a launching Saturn V at the pad would kill someone within a certain distance — a distance often cited as one mile, though some Apollo veterans have said 1000 yards, or about a kilometer. The reason why? The mechanical effects of the sound pressure would be intense enough to liquify that person’s organs.

Keep in mind that’s at the launch pad and everyone but astronauts were kept a safe distance away. As for the astronauts, the design of the launch pad helped deflect the sound, sound suppression systems dampened it a bit and finally, they were well insulated from the outside environment.

For buildings farther from the launch pad during a Saturn V launch, shakes and rattles were quite common, something Walter Cronkite dramatically described in the launch of Apollo 4 in 1967, from the CBS press box some 3.6 miles from the launch:

No water-deluge sound suppression was used for the Apollo 4 launch, and all other subsequent Saturn V launches employed that technique to reduce the noise at the launchpad and beyond.

Instead, Apollo 4 could be used as a gauge of the top end extreme sounds heard from launches on the Space Coast. Today, all rocket launches from the Cape have some form of sound suppression. Starship will be the same.

The Saturn V generated a sound level of 91 decibels from a distance of 9384 meters (6.2 miles) from the launch pad, according to NASA. From 12.4 miles — the distance from Pad LC-39A to the western end of the Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville, a sound level of 85 decibels was heard. At Lori Wilson Park (19 miles) around 80 decibels.

Those launches were indeed loud, but not dangerously so, and residents of the time collectively shrugged it off as part of living close to the Cape.

Cape Studies Are Underway

Sound studies and projections are part of the Environmental Impact Study underway for Starship at LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center as well as another EIS for SLC-37 or a new SLC-50 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Local residents should pay close attention to them, as this will be the first and most immediate effect of a Starship Heavy launch from the Eastern Range.