Noisy Arrival Causes a Stir

A resounding double boom shattered the predawn quiet across Southern California on Tuesday as the space shuttle Discovery sliced through the sky, leaving a trail of screeching car alarms and barking dogs in its wake.

The racket was caused by twin sonic booms, the result of an aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound. And Discovery was doing just that as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere shortly after 5 a.m. on its way to landing at Edwards Air Force Base.

Within seconds, the phone lines at police and sheriff’s stations around the Southland began lighting up. The sonic booms had jolted confused residents from their beds as far away as Long Beach.

Ventura County residents flooded authorities with about 70 calls shortly after the reentry, said Capt. Bill Flannigan of the Sheriff’s Department.

“Some people were calling about people walking on the roof, banging on walls, you name it,” Flannigan said. He said an off-duty police officer also called to say “he thought someone was breaking into his house and had his gun at the ready. The dispatcher told him, ‘No, that’s the space shuttle. Don’t shoot it.’ ”

Despite the Antelope Valley’s proximity to the base, only about 10 phone calls were tallied at the Los Angeles County sheriff’s station in Lancaster, said Sgt. Paul Dino. That may be because residents have grown accustomed to noisy landings at the site, he said.

The department’s Palmdale station received seven calls from people who either mistook the sonic booms for a gunshot or thought their homes were being broken into because they felt their doors and windows rattle.

NASA ordered the shuttle to land at Edwards when poor weather prevented a landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Discovery was cleared to land at Edwards at 3:43 a.m. About an hour later, the shuttle entered the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, flying above the South Pacific.

Ten minutes later, it was about 2,000 miles from Edwards, traveling at 15,400 mph.

The shuttle landed at 5:11 a.m., NASA said. Discovery’s noisy arrival “was comparable to a giant hitting the top of the roof with a giant sledgehammer,” said Ojai resident Bill von Moltke, 73. “It came down on the entire house, and honest to God, it felt like a bolt of lightning had hit the house. Everything in the house rattled.”

The booms also triggered a barking frenzy. “I could hear every dog in the neighborhood, and mine went rushing outside to see what was attacking us,” Moltke said. “My wife slept right through it. Amazing.”

In Ventura, Dan Young, 57, heard what he thought was something slamming against his back door. He said his first thought was that raccoons had broken into his home.

In Camarillo, Jim and Sharon Exler said the noise that jolted them awake sounded like a cannon. Jim Exler, 64, said he was sure it was the start of an earthquake.

“I lay there and waited for the house to start shaking,” he said. “When nothing happened, I realized it was the shuttle.”