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Was that an explosion? A gunshot? For Space Coast residents and visitors, it's a common question, but the answer has persisted for decades: Sonic booms.
The thunderous sound produced when an aircraft or other vehicle crosses the speed of sound threshold rippled across the Space Coast and possibly farther on Wednesday when a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster attempted to land at Cape Canaveral after launching supplies to the International Space Station.
Though the Dragon spacecraft made it safely to orbit after the 1:16 p.m. blastoff, the brand new 156-foot-tall first stage found an unexpected landing site: the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX officials said the cause was likely due to failed hydraulics, which help power the grid fins that steer the booster during its automated descent.
Its targeting of an ocean landing, the company said, was a safety feature designed to avoid land and buildings in the event of equipment failure.
Though it might have been muffled by environmental conditions and the descent over the ocean, many were still able to hear the triple sonic booms generated as the booster crossed the speed of sound threshold.
The Space Coast has heard the booms for decades. For people growing up here, they were not only expected, but they were a common occurrence – especially when space shuttles would return to land at Kennedy Space Center.
'That's kind of all how we grew up,' Rockledge police dispatcher Amanda Cheyenne Manis said. 'You hear the sound, you know they made it back. Everything is OK and then I would just go back to sleep.'
Although they may be ingrained in Space Coast culture, it doesn't stop from startling and even frightening seasoned residents and visitors.
What is a sonic boom?
When an aircraft travels faster than the speed a sound, the shock waves form a cone of pressurized air molecules, which move outward in all directions extending down to the ground, according to NASA. Once the cone spreads across the landscape, the sharp release of pressure built up by the shockwave is then heard as the sonic boom.
When the Falcon 9 booster landed, it created a triple sonic boom: First by the engines, then by the landing legs before they deployed and then the grid fins.
The alarming noise not only sounds suspenseful, but can often be confused for other scary noises like explosions or gunshots. In fact, when sonic booms are heard, it's no surprise that many end up calling 911 out of concern that something went wrong.
Since starting her job, Manis has received her fair share of anxious calls after sonic booms.
'I've had people say somebody has blown something up, that someone has kicked in their door, that they think a transformer exploded,' Manis said. 'I've had people call and say, 'I don't know what it was, but I just heard the most terrifying sound.' '
Though Manis and other police dispatchers will try to reassure or explain that it was only a sonic boom, it doesn't always work. They sometimes cause people to jump and others to lock themselves in their rooms in fear that an intruder broken down their door and entered their home.
'About 75 percent of the time, they still want us to come check. They're not quite believing that it was just a sonic boom,' Manis said. 'Even if they say that they believe us, they'll be like, 'But could you still come check really quick?' '
Distance covered by sonic booms
The altitude of the supersonic vehicle affects how far sonic booms can travel. They're heard based on the width of the 'boom carpet.'
The width ends up being about one mile for each 1,000 feet of altitude, so an aircraft flying at 50,000 feet would produce a sonic boom cone about 50 miles wide.
Though Wednesday's sonic boom did not have as much of an effect as others in the past, sometimes booster sonic booms can be heard all the way in Orlando.
Factors affecting sonic booms
Almost all factors come into play when determining the loudness and power of a sonic boom – weight, size, shape of the vehicle, altitude, flight path, atmospheric conditions, and more.
A larger and heavier aircraft, for example, will produce a more powerful boom.
Sonic booms and the environment
Despite their severity, however, booms are rarely known to cause hearing or building damage.
Measured in pounds per square foot of overpressure, which is the amount of increase over the normal atmospheric pressure that surrounds us, sonic booms can cause damage to buildings and glass between two to five pounds – though it's rare that they do. At one pound of overpressure, though, NASA doesn't expect any damages.
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The sonic booms heard on the Space Coast, meanwhile, clock in between 1.5 and two pounds of overpressure.
The legacy of sonic booms
The sound might be menacing to some, but for others, it brings back distant memories.
Born and raised on the Space Coast, Manis associates sonic booms with nostalgia as she remembers when she was in school and would hear them.
'It's kind of reassuring, a little like a throwback,' she said. 'Back to being a kid again.'
But the booms weren't just about the spacecraft – it also meant astronauts had returned safely.
'The fact that those people got back safely, that's a big deal and we should be thankful for that and not necessarily so easily annoyed by such a small thing,' Manis said.
Remembering a time when launches were less frequent – and booms virtually nonexistent between the space shuttle program's end in 2011 and SpaceX's first booster landing in late 2015 – Manis is glad that the cadence of launch activity is picking up.
'I think it's easy to be annoyed, but sometimes we should just stop and be thankful for what we have and what it stands for,' she said.
Contact Jaramillo at 321-242-3668 or antoniaj@floridatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AntoniaJ_11.
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Holden attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned a BS and MS in Computer Science.