So...approaching MACH 3?
“So...approaching MACH 3?”
Approaching, yes
At the moment the pic captured, the rocket was probably around Mach 1.2 +/-
Bow shockwaves at 45° is about mach 1.4
No, I think it was passing through mach 1. The shock wave near the rocket is at an angle of about 45 degrees meaning the shock wave was moving away at the same speed as the rocket moved along the trajectory. You can see at the outer portions of the shock waves that the wave curves, showing that the speed of sound outward was greater then the speed of the rocket when the shock wave formed.
The trigonometry of the picture with the rocket movement (up or adjacent side of the right triangle), The shock wave is moving out (opposite side of the right triangle formed at the nose of the rocket). At the speed of sound up is equal to out so the sides of the triangle are 1 and 1. The Arc Tangent (opposite divided by adjacent sides) is 1. Arctan of 1 is 45 degrees. If the rocket was travelling twice the speed of sound then up = 2 and out (speed of sound) = 1. Opposite divided by adjacent = 1/2. Arctan of 0.5 = 26.56 degrees. The shock waves are going at a greater angle than Mach 2. And Mach 3 would produce shock waves at an angle of 18.4 degrees. The three shock waves are caused by different dynamics. The upper one is caused by air being displaced ahead of the rocket. The second shock wave is caused by air impacting the payload fairing which is the nose cone of this type of rocket. The third shock wave is from turbulence at the back end of the rocket, likely the fins and the blast from the rocket engines.
I used to work in this industry, more on the satellites, but some on the rockets.