Space Shuttle scheduled to land near LA this evening, big sonic boom expected

Update, 5:55pm PDT: Heard just now on Mission Control audio: "Home! (...) Welcome home Discovery, after a successful mission, stepping up science to a new level on the International Space Station." A beautiful touchdown at 5:53pm PDT, and damn tootin' we heard (and felt) the twin booms here in LA.

Southern California BB readers, here's your evening forecast: breezy with a chance of BEWMMMM! Expect a large sonic boom between 530-555pm PDT this evening if you're in one of the colored areas in the map embedded at left (click to see large size).

That's when the Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to land at Edwards Air Force Base out in Mojave, instead of KSC in Florida (due to sketchy weather back east). Snip from LA Times item:

The so-called "deorbit burn" is scheduled to begin at 4:47 p.m. PDT for a 5:53 p.m. landing at Edwards in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, according to details published on NASA's website. The second opportunity for leaving orbit will come at 6:23 p.m., ending with a landing at 7:28 p.m.

The mission to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station lasted 2 weeks and spanned 5.7 million miles. More: LA Times, NASA "Landing Blog."

Wooo! The deorbit burn is beginning as I type this blog post. Snip:

Discovery's orbital maneuvering system engines are firing now. This two-minute, 35-second deorbit burn will slow the orbiter's forward speed by about 267 feet per second, enough to begin its descent through the atmosphere.

Previously:

Update: Sonic boom + unsuspecting dog = the video below (via @caseymckinnon via @georgeruiz).

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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ViolettVerq

Ein doppelter Boom.

or

Ein doppeltes Bangen.

or as we would say

Ein doppelter Knall!

(I love me some Knall.)
Takuan

danke
AirPillo

@Airpillo
The foam didn’t cause damage to the structure, it dislodged some heat tiles, which allowed the heat of reentry to damage the wing structure until the shuttle broke up. A bird could definitely dislodge heat tiles, but by then heat isn’t really an issue. I doubt a bird could cause any significant structural damage I’d say the birds should be more worried than NASA :)

Oh, I know, but I’ve seen footage of a simulation that was later run by NASA, firing a piece of foam from an air cannon at the leading edge of a 1:1 model shuttle wing edge.

Many NASA scientists expected the soft material to bounce off with minor damage. The shocking reality was that the foam literally punched a clean hole in the wing’s leading edge, into the interior cavity behind it. It was a very scary result, the kind of damage that I think would change the handling of the shuttle, an already unwieldy aircraft during glide. This was a simulation of launch conditions, though, so I don’t know what bearing that has on glide velocity strikes.

Here’s a video, for the curious. The latter half is the full-scale testing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suniiico7z4
Anonymous

I thought a car ran over my building…so much for head phones
theawesomerobot

@45 – I actually tried to see the Discovery’s initial planned launch in August, so I know first hand the pain of delays! Ah well, I got to take a nice little tour at least…
jtiii

Okay, that’s all great and everything folks, but did you even watch the video?? The dog’s name is nipple!
Stefan Jones

I was visiting my parents in Titusville, across the Indian River from the space center, when a shuttle landed.

We’d heard on the radio that there’d be a sonic boom. My mother, uncle, and I walked down to the beach at the end of the road to watch and listen.

Now, my uncle is an awesomely stubborn know-it-all. He was sure, absolutely sure, that we’d see and hear nothing.

While were chatting the air was shattered by two enormous BOOOM!!!!!s. Dogs barked, and hundreds of birds took to the air.

My uncle was speechless for about ten seconds. “Aha!” he declared, “The fired off a cannon to scare the birds away from the shuttle’s flight path.”
arkizzle / Moderator

Teller, my labrador was put down at the grand old age of 16 (112), about two weeks ago. Had her since she was a pup.

My condolences.
macmichael

When I saw that the shuttle was going to be passing over hear, I went out for a walk. Couldn’t see anything thanks to the cloud cover, though even without it, I don’t know if it would have been visible. The boom hit downtown Long Beach at 5:48pm, according to my phone. Made me smile, but no one else that I saw seemed to pay much, if any, attention to it.
loganbouchard

#34
“Okay, that’s all great and everything folks, but did you even watch the video?? The dog’s name is nipple!”

THANK YOU! i just read this whole page trying to figure out if i heard that right!
mdh

I was going for Doppler Gang, tracking the sound for Xeni as the object traveled from far to near to far.
Takuan

! Unterdoppleerbangen” please!
Anonymous

Gorgeous dog. I love goldens.
Takuan

“Vy wass I not tolt of der Shuttle boom?! Und now ze all lauff at me!”
Takuan

“Mein Fuhrer… you ordered the bunker be soundproff”
Takuan

aye, I had a Golden once too… but I was really drunk.
Anonymous

loved the eyebrows
Takuan

thank you thank you, try the calamari folks, it’s no one I know.
AirPillo

My uncle was speechless for about ten seconds. “Aha!” he declared, “The fired off a cannon to scare the birds away from the shuttle’s flight path.”

That’s silly, but it makes me wonder what a bird strike might actually do to a shuttle.

Testing after Columbia was lost suggested that at high speeds even a couple pounds of soft foam could literally punch a big, structurally significant hole in the wing’s leading edge, and birds are harder than foam. Hmmm…
misterdna

Wish I would have known in advance, it scared the shit out of my wife and I — we thought our toddler who was sleeping upstairs had done something awful! And thanks for the image, it shows we probably received some of the most intense boom (being on the coast under the pinkish color).
jfrancis

I was expecting it, thanks to bb, and I still got startled that someone was trying to break in through my sliding glass balcony door.
Teller

Thanks for the video. I buried my Golden in the yard about six months ago. Miss him every day. Wah.
Teller

Thanks, Ark. Same, 16 from pup. When people ask Where’s your dog? I can honestly say Oh, he’s in the yard.
mdh

sounds like xeni has her own dopple gang.
Takuan

nein, einen dopple bangen.
AirPillo

Awesome, its landing vector is going right over my home. I haven’t had free time to see a space shuttle fly overhead for landing since I was in fourth grade and it flew over the school during recess! :)
Takuan

or dopple boomen?
Pantograph

That’s silly, but it makes me wonder what a bird strike might actually do to a shuttle.

Probably very little. The major problem with “birdstrike” (as if it’s the bird’s fault) is the bird getting sucked into the sensitive turbine blades of a jet engine air intake.
Shuttles have rocket engines which are exit-only and not (or barely?) used on re-entry.

The tiles on the outside are still vulnerable, but by the time a Shuttle is likely to encounter a bird it has slowed down enough that the heat resistant tiling isn’t necessary any more.
Sleeper

@Airpillo
The foam didn’t cause damage to the structure, it dislodged some heat tiles, which allowed the heat of reentry to damage the wing structure until the shuttle broke up. A bird could definitely dislodge heat tiles, but by then heat isn’t really an issue. I doubt a bird could cause any significant structural damage I’d say the birds should be more worried than NASA :)
Beelzebuddy

Listen in yourselves:

http://somafm.com/missioncontrol/played
Anonymous

Redondo Beach checking in…. double BOOM confirmed
WA

I just heard what was presumably the sonic boom over Pasadena; it was rather impressive.
Anonymous

Boom! There it goes, shaking our office building in the Mid-Wilshire area.
Xeni Jardin

JEEEBUS! double boooom!!! Man that was loud and intense!
Anonymous

Just heard it at 5:50 pm in Costa Mesa. Boom Boom.
AirPillo

It was too cloudy here in Covina to catch a glimpse of it, but the boom was pretty impressive. It startled my family while we watched from the front yard. :)
Anonymous

I also heard the sonic boom in OC @5:50PM. Thanks for the tip. Cheers!
Anonymous

San Fernando Valley here, heard it about 5:51 as well.
Anonymous

we thought something was exploding in our house in Mar Vista! Glad this was posted. I thought it sounded like a sonic boom but couldn’t figure out what could be making.
Anonymous

I live by LAX and I just heard it.

I could feel it in my chest and it set off all the car alarms on my block.

Pretty exciting
Rindan

With every launch/landing that passes into history, and very likely last-ever flight of a vehicle with wings into space, I get a bit more scratchy about emptying out my meagre savings and taking a trip to the US to watch one or the other. I would *love* to see a launch…

Well, I can’t put a value on your time. Only you can. That said, I can assure you that the shuttle taking off is easily one of the most awesome awe inspiring things I have ever seen in my life. I saw it take off by accident many miles away. It stopped the cars in the city I was in dead as everyone pulled over to watch. TV doesn’t even begin to do it a lick of justice. You don’t get a sense of the scale of the thing. It is as big as a freaking building and it is riding up on a massive flame. Your mind kind of rejects what it is seeing because it is so god damn big.

I can’t say much in favor of spending time on that area Florida for a week or two, but seeing the actual take off is incredible.
Anonymous

heard downtown!
Anonymous

So that’s what that was! I just thought the neighbor slammed their door twice successively very hard.
Anonymous

holy crap I just felt this!!
Anonymous

Holy cow!!! That was a BIG BOOOM! Heard it, shook it here in Rancho Palos Verdes…awesome.
Anonymous

LOUD and intense. Windows rattling here in Glendale a few minutes ago.
IWood

#4 posted by Xeni Jardin:

It’s 6:02PM here…I heard the boom when it landed at Edwards last time. If my math is right I should be hearing it any minute now here in Santa Barbara…
- http://www.xeni.net Xeni Jardin
  
  Wow this is neat! Looking at the BB comment timestamps, and Twitter timestamps from friends I follow who live in LA, I can see that folks in one area along the trajectory heard/felt it at X minute, and then folks further up the line at Y minute, and those still closer to Mojave at Z minute…. that’s really cool! Literally one minute by one minute by one minute. Cosmic.
jaytkay

I lived in LA for five years, and in that time the shuttle rattled windows better than any earthquake.

Being a space nerd, I cheered every time.
Anonymous

Wow…way to plan this right on 9/11. My IM was blowing up with people asking me if we were getting bombed.
Shelby Davis

Welcome home, astronauts!
IWood

Welp, it’s 6:18 now. Guess I’m not going to hear it this time. I wonder why? Hrm.
Takuan

bewmmmm? I see a pattern. Of pairs.
Anonymous

Eagle rock, Los Angeles, felt a boom thought it was an Earthquake!, everybody from my neighborhood went outside wondering what it was
AirPillo

Thanks for posting this Xeni, I wouldn’t have known about it without you and probably wouldn’t have heard the booms since I’d have been deep in the middle of the house. That totally made my day, even if I didn’t see it.

Welcome home Discovery!
Anonymous

I thought it’s 9/11 attack of some sort.. phew
Anonymous

Where does the “58 days in space” figure come from?
ianm

Correction: “Home! After 58 days in space… Welcome home Discovery

Just FYI the mission duration was actually 13 days, 20 hours, 53 minutes, 45 seconds.

The ’58 days’ things refers to the following:

“Friday was the 58th day in space for their crewmate Tim Kopra, who launched on shuttle mission STS-127 in July and spent two months on the International Space Station as an Expedition 20 crew member.”
Anonymous

in van nuys 5;50p.m i heard the double boom. shook my blinds, very amazing.
Anonymous

Way to plan this on 9/11, I was just heading in for dinner when BANG BANG shook the ******* house!
Anonymous

Heard it here in Stanton, Orange County
Anonymous

shook the whole house. in mar vista…really loud!
Anonymous

From the County of Los Angeles, Southgate CA. The double boom was hell of shocking. Recognizing it was 9/11/09 I was expecting to view a forming mushroom. I thought 9/11 hit Los Angeles.
imipak

Bird strikes: yes. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090115-shuttle-bird-threat.html

With every launch/landing that passes into history, and very likely last-ever flight of a vehicle with wings into space, I get a bit more scratchy about emptying out my meagre savings and taking a trip to the US to watch one or the other. I would *love* to see a launch, but the risk of taking two weeks off work and spending a couple of K flying across the Atlantic only for launch to be scrubbed for three weeks… and also, I =hate= travel. Haven’t flown since 1997, and not for “pleasure” since ’85.