4 ms·
No, it definitely did fly over you. I apologize that I was unclear in my earlier comment. I meant to say "It was not close enough to you by the time it was ov
by dabluecaboose 4y ago
No, it definitely did fly over you. I apologize that I was unclear in my earlier comment. I meant to say "It was not close enough to you by the time it was over Alaska" since it was a polar launch (Northward)
I'm not telling you that you didn't see the spiral, I'm telling you that there's no physical way that it could have knocked anything off your shelf from the upper atmosphere.
- rolph 4y agoso 50-60 miles is recognized as the edge of space, is that too far for a shockwave to travel? im looking at the idea this was re-entry shock from an jettisoned booster stage, either that or there was someonelse , using the spaceX as cover for thier own launch, but i havnt heard about anything from Kodiak.
- dabluecaboose 4y agoIt's difficult to say what precise altitude it was at, but the spiral formation is from the final booster stage jettisoning fuel so that it doesn't explode on re-entry. That means, in very broad terms, the spacecraft and the booster were likely in the low earth orbit regime, and likely just under orbital velocity for the spacecraft. Given that the spiral had a northward azimuth from Delta Junction (as per the article) the draining happened after it had already passed overhead, and it was likely very far away when it actually re-entered. At an inclination in line with Vandenburg, it likely landed in the Pacific. I am an astrodynamicist but my work in launch dynamics is a bit rusty, so bear with me if my off-the-cuff estimates are off.
- rolph 4y agothat seems to describe the path, the [sound] intensity was in sync with the path of the spiral.