With a Sonic Boom, Space Shuttle Discovery Lands at Edwards Air Force Base

A sonic boom occurred over Los Angeles and could be heard across southern California today as the Space Shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air force Base at about 5:50pm Pacific.

The Space Shuttle Discovery made it’s descent late this afternoon, causing it’s normal sonic boom as it glided in over Los Angeles shortly before 6pm. Unpredictable weather caused NASA to make the decision to land the shuttle at Edwards Air Force base in California rather than at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Discovery started it’s de-orbit burn shortly before 5pm, where they burn the engines for about 3-4 minutes to slow it down enough to begin it’s descent. 50 minutes later, Discovery landed at Edwards, ending a 14 day supply mission to the International Space Station that covered some 5.7 million miles.