Shuttle lands safely, sets off sonic booms

 

[AP photo]

The Space shuttle Endeavour knocked on our door last night -- at least, that's what it sounded like. Just look at all the people who commented below. 

   Here's what happened: Cloudy weather prevented the shuttle from landing at 7:05 p.m. as originally scheduled, so the astronauts flew around Earth one more time. That only takes about 90 minutes when you're orbiting the planet.

  The weather cleared up, and Endeavour descended, this time on a new flight path that crossed over Florida, very near Tampa Bay. Because this flight path brought the shuttle so much closer to us in the Tampa Bay area, the sonic booms were louder.

   Like other supersonic aircraft, the nose of the space shuttle compresses air as it streaks through the atmosphere, creating a shock wave that spreads out like waves spreading from the bow of a ship. A similar shock wave spreads out from the tail of the shuttle.

   We hear this vibrating air as sound. And last night, many of us heard it twice. The first sonic boom was the sound waves spreading off the nose, and the second boom a half-second later was the waves spreading off the tail. Endeavour is 122 feet long. On a smaller supersonic aircraft, the two waves are so close together it sounds like one boom.

   Tom Hipp of St. Pete Beach not only heard the shuttle, he saw it. A space enthusiast, he monitored NASA's changing plans and stood outside his home about the time he figured Endeavour would be passing nearby.

   "It was just a pinpoint bright light that appeared about 30 degrees above the western horizon," said Hipp, 68, a retired communications engineer. He watched for about two minutes as it crossed the sky heading east.

   He went back inside to watch the landing on television. And then he heard it. "The sonic booms came about five minutes after it passed over," Hipp said.

   Anyone else out there see the shuttle?

   -- Curtis Krueger, Times staff writer

  Click here to read the Associated Press report.

Listen for the space shuttle tonight

If you hear two familiar sonic booms about 7 tonight, that means the space shuttle Endeavour is on its way back to Cape Canaveral for a 7:05 p.m. landing. NASA says it's hard to tell whether the sound of the booms will carry all the way to the Tampa Bay area, because it depends on atmospheric conditions.

The shuttle will fly over Florida's east coast en route to the Kennedy Space Center, unless weather delays the landing. In that case, NASA could choose to send Endeavour around Earth one more time, which would delay the landing about 90 minutes. For the later landing, the shuttle would take a different route, passing just south of Tampa Bay and across Florida, and we would almost certainly hear the booms.

Endeavour launched March 11 for a mission that included setting up a new Canadian-built robot on the exterior of the international space station, and carrying up the first part of a Japanese-built space lab.

Curtis Krueger, Times staff writer

Shuttle 'Endeavour' lights up night

[AP photo]

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Rocket fire bathed the Kennedy Space Center like a sunrise at 2:28 this morning, as the space shuttle Endeavour launched into orbit. Astronauts began a 16-day mission, the longest visit by a shuttle crew to the international space station. Among the mission highlights: setting up a two-armed, Canadian-built robot and installing the first piece of a Japanese laboratory.

-- Curtis Krueger, Times staff writer