We all know that living in Southern California is different. I was thinking about that shortly after 5am today when a huge sonic boom that sounded like a cannon, or thunder before a lightning strike, woke me up out of a deep sleep.
First the thunder, then the lightning
Fifty times before, space shuttles have landed in the high desert. This one came in north of LA between Oxnard and Ventura, set off a couple of booms as it glided into position. It's interesting how waking up from a shuttle's sonic boom works. Your first reaction is primal -- some kind of danger out there -- and, for me anyway, you wake right up into "protect mode." A few seconds later, as your brain sorts this out (if you've been following the news) you realize you just heard the space shuttle. Today my concern was that the crew land safely. Which they did.
I've seen shuttles land a couple of times up at Edwards Air Force Base. Never saw one land in the early morning darkness. That would have been something.
I can only imagine what it must have been like hurtling out of the sky at 15,400 miles per hour, then down to 5,000, finally coming in at 500 -- all the while knowing that the last time humans rode one of these machines out of space into the sky everybody died.
So, I lost a little sleep this morning but I'll make it up tonight knowing it worked out. Welcome home.
