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Space

Expect Sonic Booms In Central Florida As Falcon 9 Booster Lands At Cape Canaveral, SpaceX Warns (usf.edu) 37

Posted by BeauHD from the PSA dept.
SpaceX is set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Florida's Space Coast with a scheduled booster landing back at Cape Canaveral, which means there could be sonic booms heard in the area. From a report: As the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster plummets back to Earth just under 10 minutes after launch, it creates shockwaves that make a thunderous sonic boom -- which can be heard across Central Florida depending on weather conditions. Usually SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 booster out at sea. But for this launch of a handful of commercial and scientific payloads, the company is directing the rocket booster back to Cape Canaveral.

The mission will launch southward, a departure from usual eastward launches. It's the second of a planned five polar launches heading southward just this month. While there weren't any issues with wayward boats or planes for a launch last week, SLD 45 is asking boaters and pilots to continue to pay attention to new hazard areas issued for this launch. "These trajectories are different," said [Lt. Col. Brian Eno, Commander of the 1st Range Operations Squadron]. "We must make sure that we're vigilant as a community on reviewing those notices. SpaceX's Transporter-3 mission has a 29-minute launch window which opens Thursday at 10:25 a.m. ET. Space Fore forecasters said there's a 70 percent chance of favorable launch weather.
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Expect Sonic Booms In Central Florida As Falcon 9 Booster Lands At Cape Canaveral, SpaceX Warns More

Expect Sonic Booms In Central Florida As Falcon 9 Booster Lands At Cape Canaveral, SpaceX Warns

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  • I would love to be in the area to hear the sonic booms from the booster landing. That would be a great memory to pass to others. Imagine the stories told by those that were in Florida watching the Apollo flights in the 70s.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I would love to be in the area to hear the sonic booms from the booster landing. That would be a great memory to pass to others. Imagine the stories told by those that were in Florida watching the Apollo flights in the 70s.

      The problem is the buzzkill. Supersonic flights aren't allowed over land, not because they're loud, but because the sonic booms can break windows and disrupt those on the ground. It's basically what doomed the Concorde to flight over water.

      If these booms break glass, it'll be less "cool f

      • If those booms haven't been a problem so far, why should they be now?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          If those booms haven't been a problem so far, why should they be now?

          Because, like Concorde, they happened over the water.

          Now it's happening on land, and you know how people are. One cracked window can lead to a PR nightmare and a clamp down on operations for SpaceX.

          • I'll just repeat my question: why hasn't THIS been a problem for the past six years since December 2015 when they started doing Cape Canaveral landings?

      • Re:Love Sonic Booms (Score:4, Interesting)

        by sid crimson ( 46823 ) on Thursday January 13, 2022 @12:29PM (#62169895)

        I grew up in the Antelope Valley in the 80s. Between EAFB, Plant42, Skunkworks, and the Space Shuttle landings we had plenty of aircraft overhead and sonic booms were a regular occurrence. I don't recall hearing about any broken windows ever.

        Also, in the same era the house next door to mine was built as an experimental home to see if construction techniques could be used to limit the sound/vibration inside the home so that sonic booms were not a disturbance. The place was built like a tank. First 2x6 construction, heavy insulation, triple-pane windows, the works. Nice place, but the experiment only proved that the cost was too high to warrant setting the standard. Fast forward to today, all new homes are built this way. Meanwhile, we just get used to hearing the sonic booms.

      • Supersonic flights aren't allowed over land, not because they're loud, but because the sonic booms can break windows
        To break a window you need to be pretty close. Maximum a few hundred yards (usually much closer).
        A super sonic flight has no sonic boom anyway. The boom happens when you break the sound barrier, in either way.

        • Incorrect. It is a common misunderstanding that sonic booms only occur as the flight passes through Mach 1.

          A supersonic flight generates sonic booms over an area following the aircraft throughout the entire time that the flight is supersonic. It is not an instantaneous effect while passing through Mach 1. Instead, it is a continuous effect while flying faster than Mach 1.

          Although a single observer on the ground near a supersonic flight will hear a single sonic boom, sonic booms are propagating to multip

          • It is not an instantaneous effect while passing through Mach 1. Instead, it is a continuous effect while flying faster than Mach 1.
            nope. Simply wrong. Proof: I lived around 5 american airbase - same time. Only planes going through the sound barrier make a boom. All others fly completely silent. And a few minutes after they passed: the sound comes, but no boom. I had days with several 100 super sonic flights passing my position, usually in school. No boom.

            The explanation is pretty simple. You are accelerati

            • I had days with several 100 super sonic flights passing my position, usually in school. No boom.

              Those flights were not supersonic, then. You just mistakenly thought that they were. Sonic boom is a continuous phenomenon, not a transient one.

              • It is easy to figure if a flight is super sonic.
                Do you hear it coming: not super sonic.
                Do you only hear it when it has (long passed): supersonic.

                The only thing you could argue is a plane at 10km hight has a 30 seconds delay for the sound anyway. But the fighter jets usually flew not very high.

                Anyway, someone else said in this threat that a supersonic flight can have a conic shockwave trailing behind it, which can cause boom effects. Did not check that yet.

                • It is easy to figure if a flight is super sonic.
                  It has no sonic boom: not super sonic.
                  It has a sonic boom: supersonic.

                  FTFY. Seriously, this should be trivial to understand.

                  • Yes, it is trivial to understand.
                    But it seems to be wrong in most cases.

                    And what you fixed: was an accurate description of what is happening.

                    A plane is approaching your position sub sonic: you hear it coming.
                    If it approaches you super sonic: you don't hear it coming. (BTW: that is a no brainer!)

                    Seriously, this should be trivial to understand
                    Grasp it or don't grasp it, up to you.

                    • A plane is approaching your position sub sonic: you hear it coming.

                      Do you regularly hear airliners flying overhead? For some reason I don't, but I doubt that this reason is the airliners being supersonic.

                      If it approaches you super sonic: you don't hear it coming. (BTW: that is a no brainer!)

                      Possibly, but avoid affirming the consequent.

            • Listening to your theories about shock waves and sonic booms, based on your observations from living next to an airforce base, reminds me of the alligators at Cape Canaveral and their theories about rocket science.

              During launch, the alligators think a big "alpha alligator" is making the loud rumble sound, and they then make a lot of noise.

              Like yours, their theories are incorrect and their understanding incomplete.

              • I have no theories :P

                I just never new about shock waves - and they seem not really plausible.

                But I know about sub and super sonic flight: as I had about 100 per day.

                Have a good day.

        • The boom happens when you break the sound barrier, in either way.

          Wrong: [wikipedia.org]

          A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound.

          • That is not a sonic boom, that is a shock wave.

            Perhaps Americans have different terms like we Germans have.

            We call it "Ueberschallknall" and that has nothing to do with your wikipedia entrance.

            • That is not a sonic boom, that is a shock wave.

              That *is* a sonic boom. Fret about it as you will, but that's what a sonic boom is.

              We call it "Ueberschallknall" and that has nothing to do with your wikipedia entrance.

              So this page [wikipedia.org] is not claiming that "Ueberschallknall" happens when an object is flying at supersonic speed, then?

              • Yes, it is. Or no it is not.
                It is clearly stating that it happens when the plane breaks the sound barrier. And has nothing to do with flying supersonic there after.

                Oops. But thanks for the link.

    • Where I used to work (just north of Orlando) a lot of people used to run outside (including me!) for Shuttle landings because you could hear the sonic boom as it passed overhead.

  • Guess that series of ambient albums isn't selling as well as it used to.

  • Welcome back to the 80s in "cold war" era Germany, where daily sonic booms by Luftwaffe, RAF and USAF fighter jets were the norm rather than the exception :-P

  • Not new (Score:4, Informative)

    by necro81 ( 917438 ) on Thursday January 13, 2022 @10:17AM (#62169635) Journal
    Maybe it is timely, but this is hardly news. SpaceX has landed boosters at the Cape before (called a Return to Launch Site (RTLS)), and they cause sonic booms each time. In fact, for at least one launch of the Falcon Heavy, both boosters returned, creating multiple sonic booms [youtube.com].

  • Don fart

  • SpaceX keeps racking up the wins. This one was special though as I have my first free flying orbital satellite in space because of this flight.

    Sorry (not sorry) for the shameless plug.

    • Re:Another Success for SpaceX (Score:5, Funny)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Thursday January 13, 2022 @01:24PM (#62170059)
      Congratulations! That's really cool.

      Oh wait, this is /. Give me a minute... I think I remember how this is supposed to work here.. Ahem... "So you put more useless space junk into orbit on a useless rocket trip that is destroying the environment!? You and Elon are the worst thing since sliced Hitler!"
      • This looks fun - can I play?

        All progress is bad!
        Human are a pox on the planet!
        The only answer is a global genocide and/or plague!
        We must take all possible precautions against existing global plague!
  • I grew up near the US Naval Air Station in El Centro, California, where the Blue Angels train during the winter. Test flights (not the Blue Angels) would frequently break the sound barrier and reports of broken windows were common.

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