[net.space] Shuttle heard in Livermore, CA

OTA%S1-A@sri-unix.UUCP (12/10/83)

From:  Ted Anderson <OTA@S1-A>

We got an unexpected treat here in Livermore yesteray 6 minutes before
Columbia's touch down.  Listening to the 3PM CBS network news for the
latest update, we noted that the shuttle would be comming in from the
north, crossing the coast 80 miles north of San Fransisco.  A quite check
of a map showed that the most likely shuttle track passed almost directly
over Livermore.  A few calculations suggested that some 10 minutes before
landing time we should get the sonic boom, if it was loud enough to hear.
It was more like six or seven minutes but we heard a well defined double
boom.

Did any one else hear it?  I'd be interested in find out how wide a track
it was audible over.  Also any idea how high it was over Livermore, we are
about 250 nm from Edwards?

REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (12/11/83)

From:  Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC>

About ten minutes before landing there was a news advisory (I think it
was on KGO radio; I was listening to both that and KPIX-TV.) that we
in the SF bay area might hear a sonic boom two minutes before landing.
I think somebody goofed, since by that time it was already within
sight of EAFB, 400 miles from the bay area.