A SpaceX rocket lifted off Friday from the Santa Barbara County coast in an early morning launch through low clouds.

The Falcon 9 rocket launched just before 7 a.m. from Vandenberg Space Force Base northwest of Santa Barbara. The rocket soared through a deep layer of clouds and carried 20 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/u4pefHLdda

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 20, 2024

The first stage landed on a droneship at sea.

The rocket and its exhaust plume are sometimes visible for hundreds of miles as it soars along the coast, if skies are clear. Launches just after sunset and before sunrise usually provide the best views as the rocket reflects the sun’s rays against the backdrop of a darkened sky.

The rocket can produce a sonic boom as it soars along the Southern California coast.

SpaceX has a Starlink constellation of satellites orbiting Earth about 340 miles up, shuttled into space by the company’s rockets. The Starlink network is designed to deliver high-speed internet anywhere around the globe.

If light conditions are right, the satellites appear in a train as they parade across the night sky. The satellites are sometimes visible in the first few minutes after sundown and before sunrise when the sun is below the horizon, but the satellites are high enough to reflect direct sunlight.

Use the FindStarlink tracker to find the best upcoming viewing times.

At least 10 people who dined at a Valencia restaurant over the weekend were sickened in a salmonella outbreak, according to the Los Angles County Health Department.

Ava Pulaski, who was visiting Southern California, was one of the customers who fell ill after eating at Madre! restaurant in the northern Los Angeles County community.

“I went online, to leave a bad review, actually, and I saw everyone else’s,” said Pulaski. “I was like, ok, this is a serious issue.”

The restaurant’s owner told NBCLA a customer called him on Wednesday and said they tested positive for salmonella. Chef and owner Ivan Vasquez said he called the health department, which issued a notice of temporary closure due to the health hazard.

“It’s unfortunate that this happened at our restaurant,” Vasquez said. “We’re going to be working really hard with the health department with full transparency.”

A source of the contamination was not immediately identified. The restaurant will remain closed until that happens and sanitization is complete.

Salmonella can be contracted from contaminated food or by coming into contact with people and animals who are sick. Symptoms include gastrointestinal problems.

The health department offered the following tips to prevent its spread.

• Wash your hands after you use the bathroom or change a diaper.
• Wash all fruits and vegetables before eating them.
• Wrap fresh meats, poultry, and seafood in plastic bags at the market to prevent their liquids from dripping on other foods.
• Use a meat thermometer to check the inside temperature of meats to make sure they are fully cooked.
• Immediately wash cutting boards and counters used to prepare raw foods to avoid spreading the germs to other foods.
• Avoid eating raw eggs and foods that contains uncooked eggs (i.e. cookie dough, homemade ice cream, tiramisu, eggnog).
• If you have salmonella, don’t prepare food for others until your diarrhea has stopped.

Thieves were captured on video breaking into an upscale beauty salon in Beverly Grove during the early morning hours of Thursday, leaving a hole in the front door and a wall. 

But it turned out the hair salon may not have been the target. 

Burglars, who broke into the IKONBH salon near La Cienega and Beverly Boulevard, appeared to have targeted the pharmacy next door. 

Surveillance video showed three people smashing the glass door of the salon, walking in and immediately making their way to the back of the store to create a large hole through the wall to get to Eddie’s Pharmacy.

The drug store’s burglar alarm went off, alerting police.

“There was nothing stolen from us, but we know that the pharmacy next door got something stolen from them,” said Yanina, who manages the salon. “We constantly have people walking by our window, screaming, doing weird stuff.”

A videographer who was at the scene said the intruders took several track bags of medication. The pharmacy’s manager declined to comment.

The salon expects to pay some $750 to fix the door.