JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Dozens of News4Jax viewers called the newsroom and emailed about a loud boom they heard on Thursday night. Dishes and windows rattling, brief boom, “sudden and powerful” was how one News4jax viewer described it.
Some said it shook their house. What was it?
What you heard was a sonic boom from SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft heading for a splashdown.
The spacecraft had just completed SpaceX’s 23rd cargo resupply mission to the space station. This is an unmanned craft that came through the atmosphere right over Jacksonville and splashed down just off the east coast.
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed, completing SpaceX’s 23rd cargo resupply mission to the @space_station!
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 1, 2021
According to NASA, the Falcon 9 generates three sonic booms during its descent. First with the merlin main engines, then with the black landing legs, and finally the titanium grind finds, used the steer the rocket.
Dragon reenters Earth’s atmosphere before splashing down off the coast of Florida – completing the fifth reentry of a Dragon spacecraft this year pic.twitter.com/3NDt1MuVKK
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 1, 2021
This video below was taken by a News4Jax viewer.