The crowds saw it at roughly the same moment the landing zone cameras did.
Phones that had been pointed at the horizon swung upward almost in unison, the movement spreading through the gathered crowds the way a wave moved through water — one person looked up, then the person beside them, then the next, until the entire perimeter road was a line of upturned faces and raised screens pointed at the sky directly overhead.
Nobody spoke for a moment.
The shuttle was visible now to the naked eye. Dark against the pale grey morning, descending vertically with a steadiness that had no analogue in anything the crowd had seen before.
There was no roar of engines, exhaust trail or the particular violence of thrust that characterized every rocket launch footage anyone had ever watched.
It was like a shape coming down through the sky the way something heavy came down through water.
Someone in the crowd said, very quietly: "Oh."
