Sonic Boom

The space shuttle coming home is an awesome thing. The twin sonic booms as it breaks the sound barrier can be heard and felt for miles! But last night was especially memorable. BOOM-BOOM! And I thought to myself, "ah, the shuttle's home!" But then there was more. A rattle-rattle-rattle of the air itself. You could feel it in your bones. The ground shook. The windows shook. And this went on for a good 15 or 20 seconds. You might think that's not very long, but look at your watch and actually time it. The usual boom-boom reverberates for maybe 5 seconds. I started to think it wasn't actually the shuttle, that maybe it was something weird happening in my neighborhood. I had to turn the TV to the NASA channel to double-check. Maybe it was because it was a night landing and things were "quieter" than they are sometimes during the day. Maybe it was the angle of descent that took it more over my house than usual. Or maybe it was just the old girl saying, "I may be being retired, but I'm not gonna let you forget me!"

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