Space Shuttle Atlantis Twin Sonic Booms From Re-Entry

There's nothing to see on the video, just filming across a creek in the dark. But the point of this clip is the sound. It's the Space Shuttle Atlantis' twin sonic booms that it made coming in for a landing on September 21, 2006.

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• Space
• Shuttle
• Atlantis
• sonic
• boom
• booms
• landing
• re-entry
• reentry

[Prometheus203]

I live on the west coast of Florida and the sonic boom is one thing I always look forward to, It makes me sad to think I may never hear another sonic boom again once the shuttle is retired in 2010. It definitely gives you a feeling of the true power of technology when a vehicle over 60 miles away can shake your house and set off car alarms as it effortlessly flys over.

[JephN]

Not the boosters. The boosters fall into the ocean within 10 minutes after liftoff. That's the sound of the orbiter reentering. Once it hits denser air, it's still going supersonic. the double boom is from being mach 1+. 1st boom is the nose shockwave, 2nd boom is wing shockwave

[matt876mma]

@JephN People always say its the shuttle entering the earth's atmosphere , but thats hardly the reason why sonic booms happen.....it's because its piercing the air faster than the speed of sound , just like the concord made a sonic boom and that only flew the height of an airliner, so not really anything to do with re-entering , just being in the atmosphere.

[Finkletonian]

@JephN He never said it was the boosters....

[MrSemperFidelity]

@Prometheus203 So true. Wish I were there.

[John19182004]

"that was the sonic boom, the shuttle has just entered the atmosphere" WRONG dude. All it means is it was supersonic as it went overhead where you were. It entered the atmosphere 4000 miles away at a point called Entry Interface, which is when it starts to feel the effects of the atmosphere. Fighterjets can make sonic booms, so could Concorde, and they were obviously IN the atmosphere all the time.

[John19182004]

there's 3 sonic booms: 1 as the air snaps across the nose, another over the wings, and another over the tail. But because the wings/tail are so close together, they sound as one, that's louder than the 1st one.

[travkccase]

its the nose and the tail, they each create a seperate sonic wave you hear as a BOOM

[bumsdrums]

the space shuttle just landed in Edwards air force base in California and i didn't realize what the sonic booms were till now

[Lilydiva1]

You can only hear it on the flight path. Being a Floridian, it's pretty awesome.

Gives me goosebumps!

[queefkake1]

Jesus Christ thats a lot louder than on nasa tv

[problemloadingpage]

it just re-entered and landed in california last saturday, i was outside and all i heard was: '' BOOOOM-BOOOOOOOMSSHHHHHHHHH...­''