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Sonic boom shakes Southern California as SpaceX aircraft returns to Earth

Published 8 hours ago2 minute read

/ KCAL News

CBS News Live

CBS News Los Angeles Live

Most of Southern California felt the shaking from a brief sonic boom created as SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere on Saturday night. 

"Dragon is on track to reenter Earth's atmosphere and splash down off the southern coast of California near Oceanside at ~10:44 p.m. PT," said a post on X from SpaceX. 

The company said that the spacecraft would "announce its arrival" with a brief sonic boom before landing in the Pacific Ocean. 

US-SPACE-SPACEX-FRAM2
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Fram2 mission astronauts aboard soars into its southern orbit after lifting off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 31, 2025. Launching aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule Resilience, the Fram2 mission will be the first human spaceflight ever to cruise over Earth's polar regions. The flight is being funded privately by Chinese-born entrepreneur Chun Wang, who will serve as mission commander. The rest of the international crew are vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway, pilot Rabea Rogge of Germany and mission specialist and medical officer Eric Philips of Australia. Their flight also marks the sixth private astronaut mission by SpaceX. GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images

Dragon officially landed in the water at approximately 10:45 p.m, another X post said. 

Another post made by the International Space Station on Friday announced that the ship would take off early in the morning packed with "science and cargo" as part of a "Commercial Resupply Services mission" for NASA.

According to SpaceX, Dragon is a spacecraft that can take both humans and cargo to space. 

"It is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth, and is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station," according to the website

Dozens of people took to social media after they felt the boom on Saturday, many of whom shared videos of the bright streak across the night sky as Dragon's flight continued over the Golden State. 

Dean Fioresi

Dean Fioresi is a web producer for CBS Los Angeles. He covers breaking news throughout Southern California. When he's not writing about local events, he enjoys focusing on sports and entertainment.

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