BOOM! What was the earth-shaking, jolt-you-awake, set-off-the-car-alarm sound? Oh right, a rocket launch. But why are some rocket launches accompanied by sonic booms and others aren’t?

A sonic boom is the noise linked to shock waves created ... The loud noise shook windows around the city and suburbs of Paris and caused alarm to residents. At Roland Garros, tennis players ...

And in January 2021, a Typhoon fighter created a sonic boom over Essex and Cambridgeshire ... "Any inconvenience or alarm caused to the public by an inadvertent supersonic flight is regretted." ...