FLORIDA — A sonic boom was heard across Florida early Saturday morning, according to reports from residents on social media.
The suspected cause of the booms, which were reportedly heard at around 5 a.m., was a Boeing X-37B spaceplane returning to Earth after a mission with the United States Space Force, though not confirmed.
A news release from Boeing stated that the spaceplane landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:22 a.m.
“The award-winning spaceplane broke yet another endurance record, spending 908 days on orbit,” said Boeing Space in a tweet.
The Boeing-built #X37B has landed at @NASAKennedy, marking the completion of its sixth mission with the @SpaceForceDoD. The award-winning spaceplane broke yet another endurance record, spending 908 days on orbit.
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) November 12, 2022
Release: https://t.co/xMvHGxqlwA pic.twitter.com/EeSiR2hDQB
For the first time, the space plane hosted a service module that carried experiments for the Naval Research Laboratory, U.S. Air Force Academy and others.
“This mission highlights the Space Force's focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Air Force (DAF),” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations.
The X-37B has now flown over 1.3 billion miles and spent a total of 3,774 days in space.