BOOM!
Saturday, September 18, 2021 7:03 pm
I was watching a movie on the big TV in my living room when I heard and felt a somewhat loud boom. It sounded and felt like someone slightly bumped into my house. I say slightly since I live in a single-wide mobile home and if someone had hit my house at normal street speed they'd probably be in the living room with me.
I stopped my movie and peeked out my door and saw "Emile" across the street was also looking around his front doorway to see what the commotion was. Then it hit me...it was a sonic boom. Of course...the space capsule.
Once upon a time we who live here in Central Florida used to be quite accustomed to these sonic booms rattling us for a second or two as the Space Shuttle made its approach on landing at Cape Canaveral. A generation before me probably experienced these when Gemini and Apollo capsules splashed down in the nearby sea.
Previous SpaceX capsules have selected to land elsewhere though so it wasn't until just now that we Floridians have experienced this old familiar sound. The Inspiration4's Dragon capsule targeted the nearby Atlantic ocean coast off Florida so we got to hear and feel it zip overhead to its destination.
As you can see from the pic above, all went well and our fearless space citizens are back on Earth. And we lucky citizens of the Sunshine State will be able to once again get used to these booms if indeed more missions are slated to come home nearby.
Congratulations SpaceX and the Inspiration4 crew! Welcome back!