Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is due to return to Earth soon without a crew on board, but its tale of space mishaps isn’t over yet.
This time, NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed a “strange noise” coming from the speakers inside.
Ars Technical Report:
“‘I have a question about Starliner,’ Wilmore radioed to Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. ‘We’re hearing a strange noise coming from the speakers… I don’t know what it’s causing.'”
Butch wasn’t sure if there was some problem with the connection between the space station and the spacecraft that was causing the noise.
He asked Houston to listen to audio from inside the spacecraft.
“Wilmore, who was likely floating on the Starliner, held his microphone up to a speaker inside the Starliner. Soon after, a very distinctive sound was heard. ‘All right, Butch, that’s gone through,’ Mission Control radioed Wilmore. ‘It was a pulsating sound, almost like a sonar ping.'”
“I’ll try that again, guys, let’s all scratch our heads and see if we can figure out what’s going on,” Wilmore replied. The strange sonar-like noise was heard again. “Okay, your turn. Call me when you figure it out.”
The sonar-like noises were likely from a harmless source and Butch didn’t seem worried.
Otaku Side Report:
“The sound coming from the spacecraft’s speakers sounds a lot like a submarine’s sonar or someone outside knocking on the spacecraft. However, the astronauts cannot hear the sound anywhere else except through the speakers. On social media platform X, you can listen to the call to Houston, including the actual studio where the sound is coming from. We might be able to figure out what it is.”
Another possibility is that geomagnetic pulses are a potential source of noise.
“Radio frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) from other systems on the ISS or from the spacecraft itself can cause unintended noise from the speakers.”
Listen to the strange sounds of Starliner at X.
The Starliner is scheduled to return home on September 6th.
The date is more than 12 weeks after your first return date, Without it Crew members.
NPR Report:
“NASA said in a statement that Starliner will detach from the International Space Station at approximately 6 p.m. ET, depending on weather and operational readiness. The troubled spacecraft is scheduled to touch down on a landing zone in New Mexico shortly after midnight before returning to Boeing’s Starliner factory at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.”
That leaves behind astronauts Barry “Batch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, who departed overseas on Starliner in June and are scheduled to return in February in a capsule built by rival company SpaceX.
read more:
NASA has postponed the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to 2025 amid ongoing difficulties with Boeing’s Starliner.
