KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — People in Central Florida may be awakened in the middle of the night this week to a mysterious sound.
Folks in and around the Space Coast may hear a double sonic boom during an upcoming SpaceX rocket launch.
SpaceX is planning to launch a Falcon Heavy rocket near midnight on Thursday.
SpaceX crews are planning to launch the NROL-97 mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center around 11:48 p.m.
This launch would follow the planned Crew-13 mission, which is set to take off from the Kennedy Space Center at 11:10 a.m. on Thursday.
Both Crew-13 and the NROL-97 mission launches are planning to land their first-stage booster rockets back on the ground at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Crew-13’s Falcon 9 rocket would have a single booster landing, and the Falcon Heavy rocket would have a double booster landing.
Unlike the rocket boosters that land on SpaceX droneships in the Atlantic Ocean, the ground landing produces a sonic boom that can be heard for miles away from the landing site.
The boom is produced around 8 minutes after the rocket launches, while the booster is descending at supersonic speeds, not at the exact moment of touchdown.
This means a sonic boom could be heard at 11:18 a.m. and a double sonic boom around 11:59 p.m. on Thursday.
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