Did you hear that? The likely cause of Friday morning’s sonic boom across Beaufort County
A sonic boom that rattled homes across Beaufort County Friday morning was likely the result of a SpaceX cargo spacecraft returning to Earth.
The SpaceX Dragon landed off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, around 10:30 a.m. Friday morning. Many Beaufort County residents were likely to have heard and felt the related sonic boom.
The sound waves were strong enough to briefly shake houses.
The Dragon brought 3,600 pounds of scientific experiments to NASA from the International Space Station, according to a press release from NASA. Included were neurological experiments dubbed GRIP and GRASP.
GRIP studies the effects of long-duration spaceflight on human’s abilities to regulate grip forces when manipulating objects, while GRASP studies how the central nervous system operations in low gravity environments. Both experiments have been on the ISS for almost six years, the press release said.
Various other samples and investigations awaiting scientific analysis were included in the Dragon’s cargo as well.
This is the Elon Musk-founded company’s 28th completed contract cargo resupply mission to the ISS for NASA.
This story was originally published June 30, 2023 at 12:21 PM.
