SpaceX launching Starlink satellites live now!

Balloons don't break the sound barrier. I've tracked these boosters breaking the sound barrier prior to landing.

At 6:54 after launch in my video (time code of 7:29 in the youtube video) the rocket was descending and translating at a rate of about 1.13 degrees per second as tracked by my telescope which logged the data:
[link to drive.google.com (secure)]
At launch the booster was about 21 pixels wide at a distance of 18.69 km from the pad. That's an angular size of 0.015941 degrees. At 7:29, it was 17.7 pixels wide. That's an angular size of about 0.013 degrees. That gives us a slant range of about 22.2 km from the telescope to the rocket at that point. An apparent angular motion of 1.12 degrees per second corresponds to a velocity of about 437 m/s. That's just in motion within the plane of my field of view, but that's above mach 1! So no, it's not a fucking balloon you idiot.