Florida residents were baffled on Saturday when they heard sonic booms ring out from the night skies, according to reports.
As per Fox News, the noise was caused by Boeing’s X-37B space plane, which had secretly returned home after spending over 900 days in space during its United States Air Force and Space Force mission.
LISTEN: This video from Mathew H. in Orlando captured the sound of what people think was a #sonicboom heard around 5 a.m. Saturday. Some residents tell us it rattled their windows and shook their homes!
— FOX 35 Orlando (@fox35orlando) November 12, 2022
DETAILS: https://t.co/hm266KbHRe pic.twitter.com/3qHBq8DRnL
Residents from Jacksonville and Orlando heard the sonic booms around 5 a.m., and most people did not know the origin of the booms because officials did not announce that a space plane would be landing.
“Glad to know I wasn’t going through a break-in this morning in the 5 o’clock hour here in Orlando, Florida because…dang, what a startling rumble that was,” wrote one person on Twitter.
“That was one of the loudest ones I have heard. It was heard over a very large portion of Florida,” tweeted another.
The United States Space Force announced later that day that the X-37B orbital test vehicle had concluded its sixth mission.
“OTV -6 was the first mission to introduce a service module-a ring attached to the rear of the vehicle expanding the number of experiments that can be hosted during a mission. “This mission highlights the Space Force’s focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Air Force (DAF),” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations.
Officials stated that the space plane’s service media had to be removed upon re-entry, which resulted in the surprise double sonic booms heard by Floridians.
“The service module successfully separated from the OTV before landing, which is a necessary activity due to the aerodynamic forces experienced by the X-37B vehicle upon re-entry,” they said.
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6 launched in May 2020 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
“The mission – called USSF-7 – included several experimental payloads for NASA, including an investigation on the effects of long-duration space exposure to seeds. USSF-7 also included research for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat-8, which remains in orbit. The rest of the spacecraft’s mission was top secret,” Fox News reported.
