Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 341, the Quest for Low Sonic Booms.

I'm Leah Cheshire, and I'm your host today.

On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists,

engineers, and astronauts all to let you know what's going on in the world of

human spaceflight and more. Have you ever dreamed of boarding a plane and

flying faster than the speed of sound,

making it to your intended destination in half the time? It would open a new world of possibilities

and accessibility for traveling long distances, but for the last 51 years,

commercial supersonic flights over land have been banned over the United States.

Why Sonic Booms.

NASA's Quest Mission has the X-59 aircraft as the centerpiece,

and it's addressing the future of supersonic travel by tackling Sonic Booms.

Designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without generating the strong shock waves,

typically associated with supersonic flight,

the slender design of the single seat X-59

enables it to produce a softer thump, opening the possibility

of quiet supersonic travel.

By flying over several communities

on noise levels, the goal is to show that the X-59 can fly at

supersonic speeds without the traditional sounding Sonic boom.

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