March 26, 2008.
Boom!

I was sitting at my desk tonight, deep in concentration, working away on Sarasota Film Festival business when suddenly, the entire office shook with a thunderous "Boom!"; It was as if someone had blown in the door on the first floor, rattling the whole building and scaring the shit out of me. I got up and instantly, another huge, house-shaking "POP!" followed. I ran downstairs and looked around the office for signs of damage or an intruder, then looked out into the street to see if there had been an accident or if someone might be in need of help. Nothing. Business as usual. Was I going crazy?

It turns out there was a perfectly reasonable explanation...

"The loud boom you heard tonight wasn’t caused by an earthquake, it was a couple of sonic booms caused by the space shuttle Endeavour, which flew overhead before landing at the Kennedy Space Center on the East Coast.

The shuttle landed tonight after a more than two week voyage. It took off March 11 and arrived at the International Space Station the next day.

After delivering a giant robot to the space station, the crew of the shuttle Endeavour glided home Wednesday night to complete what NASA calls a near-perfect, by-the-book mission.

Endeavour touched down at 8:39 p.m. at Kennedy Space Center, 90 minutes after the agency postponed the first attempt because of clouds over the compound. On its second try, the shuttle flew just south of the Tampa Bay area, announcing its arrival with a pair of sonic booms along the path of descent."

How cool is that? NASA, once again putting things into perspective; Film Festival work ain't rocket science, except when it is.

27shuttle02_337.jpg
Welcome home, Endeavour! (Matt Stroshane/Getty Images)

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