On Saturday, NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed a speaker in Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft emitting bizarre noises.
"I've got a question about Starliner," Wilmore told Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston. He said, "There's a strange noise coming through the speaker ... I don't know what's making it."
🚨#BREAKING: Boeing's Starliner crew are reporting hearing strange "sonar like noises" emanating from the spacecraft⁰⁰📌#OuterSpace | #Earth ⁰⁰Crews on the International Space Station are trying to identify the source of strange noises reported by Boeing’s Starliner crew, who… pic.twitter.com/MNPpOPnMTR
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) September 1, 2024
Wilmore is Starliner's commander. He asked Mission Control to analyze the audio inside the spacecraft. Minutes later, flight controllers in Houston told Wilmore the audio sounded like "pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping."
This past weekend's sonar-like noises came days before the troubled Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to return to Earth on Friday. This flight will be uncrewed, leaving Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams stranded on the International Space Station.
According to NASA, Starliner has sustained multiple helium leaks, and five of its "Reaction Control Systems" have unexpectedly malfunctioned. Last week, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson decided to tap Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring the astronauts home.
Former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield wrote on X, "There are several noises I'd prefer not to hear inside my spaceship, including this one that @Boeing Starliner is now making."
There are several noises I'd prefer not to hear inside my spaceship, including this one that @Boeing Starliner is now making. pic.twitter.com/NMMPMo5dtt
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) September 1, 2024
Musk commented on Hadfield's post with a "!"...
!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2024
Ars Technica pointed out:
Astronauts notice such oddities in space from time to time. For example, during China's first human spaceflight int 2003, astronaut Yang Liwei said he heard what sounded like an iron bucket being knocked by a wooden hammer while in orbit. Later, scientists realized the noise was due to small deformations in the spacecraft due to a difference in pressure between its inner and outer walls.
It's time for NASA to undock the Starliner from the ISS before something catastrophically happens.
