The Morning the Ground Shook at Cape Canaveral

Maria Gonzalez drove down from Jacksonville with her two daughters to watch the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch in February 2018. They parked six miles from the pad, which felt like a safe distance. When the engines ignited, there was a strange delay — they could see the fire but heard nothing. Then the sound arrived. It rolled across the water like a living thing, a low roar that climbed into their rib cages and stayed there.…