AP photo
	The space shuttle Columbia lands at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, March 12, after a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

The resounding atmospheric bangs announced the arrival of the shuttle Columbia over Florida about 4:28 a.m. and subsequent landing at Kennedy Space Center four minutes later. Seven astronauts ended an ambitious 11-day mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

``It definitely woke me up,'' said Diane Green, a Valrico resident. ``Before I went to bed I heard about the shuttle on the news, but at 4:30 in the morning you don't expect it.''

The Tampa Police Department received numerous calls from concerned people who wondered what all the racket was about. Tuesday's sonic booms were louder than usual because of low humidity and clear skies, which enhance sound.

Columbia glided above Tampa at an altitude of 100,000 feet, traveling at 3,200 mph, or five times the speed of sound. The 200,000-pound ship created sonic fingerprints in front of its blunt nose and double delta wing - the reason for two booms instead of one.

At such speeds, the shuttle's leading surfaces compress air molecules, which slam together with a bang. When a craft travels below the speed of sound, or Mach 1, disturbed air stays in front and doesn't compress.

Although people heard two distinct booms Tuesday, they actually are a continuous boom ``cone'' racing along the ground. Shuttles landing in Florida leave behind a teardrop-shaped cone measuring about 115 miles long and 35 miles wide.

NASA officials heralded the latest mission as a complete success. Astronauts fitted the $1.5 billion Hubble observatory with new cameras, solar panels and other equipment to sharpen its vision and keep it running smoothly 360 miles above Earth.

``The telescope is in awesome shape thanks to you,'' Mission Control told the crew. ``It's time ... to send Hubble on its way to make history with all the new tools you've given it.''

The mission required five spacewalks by two teams, setting a record for a shuttle mission at nearly 36 hours. Hubble also had to be completely shut down to install a power controller, the first time all systems were turned off in its 12 years of operation. After nearly five hours of tinkering, astronauts flipped Hubble back on without a hitch.

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570.