Social media users reported hearing a huge boom late Tuesday night across the Florida Panhandle, which coincided with the SpaceX Dragon capsule splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.
Some Pensacola-based Twitter users who heard it at the same time said their dogs began to yelp and that they thought a tree branch had fallen on their roof.
SpaceX Dragon Capsule’s Splashdown Triggers Sonic Boom
“If you heard a loud sound around 10 pm and thought something hit your house, that was actually a sonic boom from SpaceX Dragon re-entering the atmosphere and making a splash down in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City Beach,” Santa Rosa County Emergency Management explained in a Facebook post. Some locals even dialed 911 to report an explosion.
The 10-day mission to the International Space Station was completed by a private flight, which also included two other passengers and two Saudi astronauts.
Twelve hours after docking with the lab in space, the capsule dropped by parachute into the Gulf of Mexico.
Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Tennessee businessman John Shoffner, stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi, and fighter pilot Ali al-Qarner were among the Axiom Space Ax-2 astronauts.
Whitson is currently employed by Axiom Space, which arranged for the mission.
The multimillion-dollar payment was accepted by the Saudi government on behalf of its two astronauts. The first Saudi woman in space is Barnawai.
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Axiom Space Sends Second Private Astronaut
The CRS-SpX28 mission, which would have sent a cargo Dragon 2 capsule filled with supplies to the International Space Station, was launched by SpaceX on Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center.
Launch weather officers from the 45th Weather Squadron have given SpaceX’s 28th commercial resupply mission a 30% chance of seeing excellent weather for its 12:35 pm Falcon 9 launch.
The launch weather officers report that the most recent changes in the Tropics have not significantly altered the general outlook for CRS-SpX28.
The 45th Weather Squadron predicted another 30% probability for excellent weather in the case of a 24-hour delay, with odds increasing to 50% the next day.
Shoffner traveled to the orbiting laboratory on his own dime. It was the second individual astronaut flight from Axiom Space to the International Space Station.
By the end of the year, the business intends to send up more customers.
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