Astronauts hear strange 'pulsing sounds' from Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, sparking NASA investigation
2 September 2024, 13:50
Astronauts on the International Space Station have reported hearing a strange "pulsing" sound coming from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
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Barry Wilmore reported a repetitive knocking sound to NASA ground crew in a call on Saturday.
A recording of the call has Wilmore telling the support staff of a "strange noise coming through the speaker" from the Starliner, which is docked at the space station.
After the ground crew reconfigured their audio connection so they could listen to the Starliner, the man on the call with Wilmore said: "It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping."
The astronaut said in response: "Scratch your head to see if you figure out what's going on".
Starliner crew reports hearing strange "sonar like noises" emanating from their craft. This is the real audio of it: pic.twitter.com/xzHTMvB7uq
— SpaceBasedFox 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖊𝖊𝖆𝖊𝖗𝖔.𝖈𝖔𝖒 (@SpaceBasedFox) September 1, 2024
The cause of the sound is unclear and NASA is investigating.
One Redditor said that it could be an "atypical audio feedback with a significant delay."
They added: "I've actually heard feedback sound like this in very specific circumstances, such as in an extremely quiet environment with a huge ping delay in a very slow internet setup.
"For example, if you put a microphone and a speaker on opposite sides of a very quiet warehouse, and then transmitted the audio with a 500ms delay, it would end up sounding just like this.
"There is a 500 milliseconds return ping between earth and ISS, which happens to be the same delay between these pulses that we're hearing."
Wilmore is currently stuck on the International Space Station - because of the Starliner.
He and Sunita "Suni" Williams were supposed to stay in orbit for eight days after reaching the International Space Station, having blasted off from Earth on June 5.
But they remain in space, with the capsule suffering five helium leaks, five broken manoeuvring thrusters, as well as issues with a propellant valve.
The Starliner will be brought back to Earth with no one on board. Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth in February aboard a SpaceX craft.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said: "Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star.
"I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work."
