Around 10:44 p.m., the unmanned Dragon spacecraft, which had returned from a successful resupply mission to the International Space Station, shattered the sound barrier as it descended into the atmosphere, generating a deafening boom that was felt and heard from Venice to Santa Clarita. Residents were initially terrified of an earthquake, windows rattling and ground shaking, before discovering the cause in the sonic boom from the spacecraft.
SpaceX had already alerted the public beforehand that Dragon would “announce its arrival with a brief sonic boom” before coming in for the landing. The company’s official X (previously Twitter) account affirmed the splashdown of the capsule in the Pacific Ocean around 10:45 p.m..
Elon Musk also posted on Twitter earlier that night, “Dragon is en route to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down off the southern coast of California near Oceanside,” in anticipation of the show. The spacecraft had undocked from the ISS Friday morning, returning about 6,700 pounds of crew supplies, equipment, and scientific experiments to Earth.
The sonic boom, which numerous witnesses have described as “earthquake-like,” generated a buzz of social media activity and calls to newsrooms, with others of the public at first perplexed by the boom and shaking. “My windows rattled,” said one witness. Video captured the fiery streak of the capsule burning across the nighttime sky, seen for hundreds of miles.
This incident contributes to the increasing number of sonic booms witnessed by residents of Southern California, particularly in the vicinity of Vandenberg Space Force Basewhere SpaceX frequently launches and lands rockets. Even while making occasional complaints, authorities have insisted that these sonic booms are a routine aspect of space operations.The return of the Dragon capsule successfully is another first for SpaceX, the sole private company that can return humans and large cargo safely from orbit. As the vehicle comes to rest in the ocean, scientists and engineers will start collecting the precious cargo, further advancing humanity’s exploration of space with each splashy, sonic-booming return.
