Any of it land in your yard?

Rowdi barked at the shuttle under her breath. That will teach it.

I was wondering why they reported that the shuttle unexpectedly returned to orbit when it had almost landed....

Ahh the unexpected "BOOM, BOOM". Is there any better kind?

Wow. Breitbart reports:

"The space shuttle swooped out of the partly cloudy sky and touched down on the runway at 12:32 p.m."

Your report is at 12:30 EDT, Frank. You guys must live pretty close to Kennedy. The sonic "BOOM BOOM" happens at about 50,000 fett I think.

[We're about forty miles south, I think. It's woken us up before when they've had early morning touchdowns. If you check my YouTube page, we have video of a night launch from our backyard. -Ed.]

Rattled my office windows here in Vero! So cool.

I heard it successfully touched down and did not blow apart. Despite the massive heat shield damage.

You'd think they'd figure a way to launch the damned things WITHOUT taking dangerously large and potentially fatal chunks out of them.

I know this is a stupid question, I just can't help myself. Wouldn't it be worthwile to figure out some way to reenter the atmosphere at a speed less than 15000 MPH? Seems like it would take care of the heat shields being attacked by ice exsplodey thing if they were able to slow down to below 1500 MPH. Maybe it would take too much fuel to slow the thing down.

They did, until Slick Willy and his fellow travelers decided to be "environmentally friendly."

hyw93:
The big issue is slowing the ship down from orbital speeds. The two options are to do it like we do now (using the atmosphere as a brake) or using as much power as they did to get it up into orbit - and we can't do that (the initial launch weight would be about 100 times what it is now).

I get to hear the Shuttle flying across Central Florida sometimes - they come close enough to Orlando at high enough speeds that the double-boom is impossible to miss.

One time, they were doing a night landing, and I actually saw the Shuttle, still high up, but also still glowing from reentry heat, and venting some sort of glowing gases. After a minute or so, the booms hit. I barely had enough time to get in and see the landing itself on TV.

Oh - and a night Shuttle launch is just flat insanely beautiful, especially if you can get a body of water between you and the launch.

I forgot about it, it scared me too! I didn't figure it out till just now.

thanks Frank J. you've helped me yet again!

Wow, I heard that in Palm Beach county, wasn't very loud, I was outside and sounded like someone was banging on the inside of the roof as I walked by. Didn't think about the shuttle at the time.

First shuttle landing we experienced in T'ville was a DOD mission. They didn't announce the landing until two minutes before. We had just gotten home from church and ate lunch when the double booms hit. My Dad yelled at us to hit the floor becuase there was some crazy guy outside with a shotgun!

A few years later I almost ran off the road as the double boom rattle the minivan's roof and surprised me.

I second the night launch. It's better at the Banana River site, but you get an equally impressive view from the Indian River in T'ville.

we didn't hear it in Orlando. It all depends on the route.

That often happens when Ray Mancini stays overnight.

The house I got last year is close to a small airport. When they have the air show, the Blue Angels fly about 200 feet ( seems like 25 )over the house doing their stunts. Not a sonic boom, but very cool. And very loud. The cat didn't care. But if I start the vaccuum.....

I have always wanted to see the shuttle take off or land. The one time that it landed here in Salt Lake City, I found myself living in Russia. I fulfilled one dream (infiltrate the Russian empire), only to totally botch the other. Oops.