I may be wrong, but when a fighter jet breaks the speed of sound you get a sonic boom. And the shuttles was doing, what, 16 times that. It would stand to reason there would be a sonic boom. But then I am only guessing, I have never seen the shuttle fly except on TV.I'm sure you are right. The only difference is that the shuttle is quite high and perhaps the sound is not as noticeable as a jet, which is flying lower. I haven't heard a sonic boom in years. We used to hear them all the time. Either I am going deaf, or I no longer live in a flight path! Or perhaps regulations have been enforced to limit sonic booms in populated areas.
No you haven't gone deaf. Rumer has it that sonic booms punch holes in the ozone layer so regulations were passed stoping jets from breaking the sound barrier.