Space shuttle Endeavor’s sonic boom over Belize

A large explosion sounded throughout Belize Sunday night. A few minutes after nine, people from all over the country were calling radio stations claiming it might have been a grenade attack or even comets falling from the sky. In truth it was the space shuttle Endeavor returning into earth’s atmosphere.  While traveling at speeds over mach twenty-five, it created a sonic boom, a noise that can only be achieved by moving extremely fast. How fast exactly? Well, the Endeavor was traveling at sixteen thousand two hundred and fifty miles per hour or at eight thousand four hundred and sixty-five meters per second.  This was the twenty-third space shuttle landing in darkness, out of one hundred and thirty flights, hence the reason why it was so noticeable during the quiet of a Sunday night. The last time was in 2008.  News Five’s Jose Sanchez hit the pavement on Albert Street and asked pedestrians what they thought caused the boom in the night.

Pedestrian 1

“I thought it was a space shuttle passing though.”

Jose Sanchez

“How did you know it was a space shuttle?”

Pedestrian 1

“Cause seven years ago I was at Pen Road and I saw when one passed through so I just assume that it could be that.”

Jose Sanchez

“You didn’t think it was a grenade or anything?”

Pedestrian 1

“No, no. I saw it pass.”

Jose Sanchez

“What did you see?”

Pedestrian 1

“I just saw the sky lit up like a florescent and I just hear a boom like bout five minutes afterwards.”

Pedestrian 2

“I live in Fresh Pond in Burrell Boom and last night about nine o’clock my son Tarique called me and said he was up at Renaissance Towers and they saw a rocket going over Belize and they thought it was an invasion. They thought Guatemala was invading Belize and he was all excited. He said the cops were all over the place and there was a whole bunch of police that drove over by the seaside with sirens a whole lot of noise and then like a half hour to an hour later they watched the news and found that a space ship was landing somewhere in the US and it passed over Belize.”

Pedestrian 3

“I think I heard an explosion last night.”

Jose Sanchez

“So you thought it was a grenade?”

Pedestrian 3

“Possibly, yes.”

Jose Sanchez

“And when did you find out it wasn’t?”

Pedestrian 3

“Well, I watched CNN News and then I heard them say that the space shuttle just landed at the Space Center in Miami Florida and then I listened to Love FM and I heard them explain that it was from the space shuttle.”

Pedestrian 4

“I thought I heard an unusual sort of thunder but I knew it couldn’t be thunder so I Googled and like everybody else I found out that it was the space shuttle Endeavor.”

Pedestrian 5

“I heard wah big noise like wah bomb and ih lef wah streak ah fire like lightening.”

Pedestrian 6

“Mach tow or something I don’t know how you call it.”

Jose Sanchez

“This is actually above mach twenty-five.”

Pedestrian 6

“Really? Then it’s a lot.”

Jose Sanchez

“Where were you when you heard it?”

Pedestrian 6

“At a hotel on the outside. People in the swimming pool and said they see like a fire line and then boom.

Pedestrian 7

“I thought  someone was breaking into my house so I just grabbed a knife and a flash light and took a look around but I found out afterwards it was the sonic boom from the shuttle Endeavor.

Pedestrian 8

“I heard the two booms but I wasn’t really paying—I didn’t even know that the space shuttle was landing but after that my niece started to send texts to my wife asking about it. But I was even aware until after the fact.”

Jose Sanchez

“So you were sound asleep?

Pedestrian 9

“No, I wasn’t asleep; I was up. I heard it but I didn’t pay it any attention. Nowadays when you hear booms, it’s nothing out of the usual.”

Jose Sanchez

“So it could have been a grenade.”

Pedestrian 9

“Well I’m in Belmopan I didn’t think it was a grenade, just thought it was a backfiring or something.”

Pedestrian 10

“Fus thing I seh well grenade, yoh know weh I mean. Dat dah di mindset weh wi got out yah. But afta a while I tune in pan di radio station and dehn start explaining what actually was di Endeavor reentering space and dah sonic boom and thing. So afta wah while I feel much better and thing fi know dat dah dat and noh something out ah di ordinary like grenade.”

Jose Sanchez

“Yoh noh have wah poem dat yet?”

Pedestrian 10

“I di think bout it but Endeavor wah last forever. Nothing last forever yoh know something have to work out but weh dehn di up only dehn know, but di good Lord know weh wah happen down di road.