shuttle returns

The shuttle just passed overhead on its way to landing at the Cape. Loudest sonic boom I've ever heard, a double boom like someone firing a double-barreled shotgun a few yards away. If one barrel were 12 gauge and the other 20 gauge.

The shuttle makes a double boom because it's so large. Rather, all supersonic aircraft make a double boom, one from the nose and one from the tail, but in a smaller craft we hear both almost simultaneously. With the shuttle, they're about a half-second apart.

Joe