Will the shuttle create a sonic bom?

Question

When the space shuttle re enters the earth's atmosphere, it will fly at a very high speed. At that speed, will it create a sonic boom? Can the people on the ground hear it?

If that is the case, is there any opposition by the people against the shuttle for the boom created?

Answer 1

Absolutely YES and yes. In fact the Shuttle is the world's only supersonic glider. At the end of it's orbit, the commander presses the "de-orbit" button when he is flying over the right place (above earth) and software fires the retro-rockets which slow down the Shuttle (which by now has been oriented in the dorsal side-facing-earth while orbiting backwards. this helps the retro-rockets to slow it down so that gravity can gradually lower it's altitude.

Orbit speed is a staggering 17,500mph; I'm sure you know that the speed of sound is way below that...which means its already flying way beyond Mach 1 (supersonic).

As it looses altitude, its nose is flipped through 180-degrees (vertically) so that it transitions from "nose-trailing-behind" to "standing-on-tail" to "nose-heading-almost-forward-but-still-high". This helps to slow it down without breaking the vehicle apart via hull stressing.

From here it glides down at supersonic speeds (still trying to slow down via series of "S-turns"). The glide down is also made at a steep angle...I reckon its in the order of -30 to -50 degrees (nose down) from the horizon.

Its a long story; I don't mind continuing at your request. Visit my Y-360 page (link below).

Answer 2

I must disagree with Urwumpe on this one. The Mach angle (the shock wave cone half-angle) is arcsin(1/M), where M is the Mach number of the object. At M=10, the Mach angle is 7.2 degrees. If you lean a stick against the shuttle's nose and wingtip, it will be inclined by around 22 degrees. The shuttle is a blunt body, however, and so the shock wave will be curved at the front. But past the nosecone, the shock wave will asymptotically approach an angle of 7.2 degrees. It seems unlikely that the wingtips, which stick out at 22 degrees relative to the nosecone, are outside the shock wave for high hypersonic Mach numbers. Additionally, since the shock is oblique (past the nosecone), the Mach number can still be much greater than 1, even after going through the shock, meaning new shock waves can form on the wing leading edges. That said, it's certainly possible the second boom is the expansion fan, rather than a second set of shock waves. Without asking NASA, I wouldn't be confident in judging it either way.

Answer 3

No doubt it makes sonic booms that are audible to an extremely limited number of people on the ground, in fact when it disintigrated in 2003, all the big chunks that entered the atmosphere all made sonic booms. The shuttle flies so infrequently that even the whiners that whine about it don't hear it more than once or twice a year. Plus, sometimes it lands in California, sometimes in Florida, so the whiners have even less chance of hearing it. Frankly, it's more irritating to hear some punk with his bass kickers cranked up in his car next to me at a stop sign, because his racket serves no purpose. At least when the shuttle creates a sonic boom it is at the end of a mission that may have contributed something to mankind.

Answer 4

As Stretch indicates, the shuttle does make a very audible double sonic boom when passing overhead on reentry/approach. If the shuttle is landing at KSC, you can clearly hear the boom in the Orlando area for example.

Answer 5

The space shuttle does make sonic booms both on the outbound journey and on the way back, however the both occur at high altitude where the effects are not that noticeable to people on the ground.

Answer 6

yes the shuttle will create a sonic boom. the space shuttle travels at mach 22 (orbital velocity) and decreasing every second till it touches back down on the runway. it is only till the space shuttle's speed decreases below Mach 1, very close to the runway that you will hear a sonic boom

Answer 7

The shuttle creates two sonic booms, one by the shock wave at the nose, one by the shock wave at the tail. People on the ground can definately hear it if they're in the right (or wrong I suppose) place. Since there are people on the planet who are determined to complain about everything, there are people who complain about this too.

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec97/874604921.Eg.r.html

Answer 8

Yes, the shuttle makes a double sonic boom. One from the shockwave on the wings, the other on the tail. Living in central Florida we would here the boom-boom frequently.

Answer 9

Actually, it creates a double (boomboom) sonic boom when it reenters, as I have personally heard it, and quite well.
When it lands in California (I lived in Long Beach, by the Port of LA), I heard the double sonic boom when ever it landed here, quite a ways (almost 100 miles)
It was easy to hear, over my tv while inside, but I can't really say that it bothered me.

Answer 10

And yes... lol I live in california, and when it sometimes lands here we get a very loud sonic boom. When I know the shuttle is landing here, and the sonic boom comes, My thoughts are "Ah, Shuttle just came in".