Sonic boom shakes Southern California as SpaceX Dragon returns to Earth

By Dean Fioresi

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    LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — Most of Southern California felt the shaking from a brief sonic boom created as SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday night.

“Dragon is on track to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down off the southern coast of California near Oceanside at ~10:44 p.m. PT,” said a post on X from SpaceX.

The company said that the spacecraft would “announce its arrival” with a brief sonic boom before landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Dragon officially landed in the water at approximately 10:45 p.m, another X post said.

Another post made by the International Space Station on Friday announced that the ship would take off early in the morning packed with “science and cargo” as part of a “Commercial Resupply Services mission” for NASA.

According to SpaceX, Dragon is a spacecraft that can take both humans and cargo to space.

“It is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth, and is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station,” according to the website.

Dozens of people took to social media after they felt the boom on Saturday, many of whom shared videos of the bright streak across the night sky as Dragon’s flight continued over the Golden State.

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