NASA can explain Starliner’s pulsing, spooky sounds
Even a veteran space astronaut acknowledged that the noises were disturbing.
He would never want to hear in the space. On August 31, Boeing Starliner’s (not) stranded crewmember, Butch Wilmore, radioed NASA from aboard the International Space Station with yet another perplexing problem–a speaker aboard the already malfunctioning spacecraft had begun to emit inexplicable pinging sounds.
“There’s a strange noise coming through… I don’t know what’s making it,” Wilmore explained to mission control on Saturday. “… Let’s see if anyone can make sense of it.” Wilmore, who held a microphone up to the speaker’s face, heard a semi-regular, clear echoing that resembled the sound of submarines or Alien films. “And, Butch? Just to be sure we’re on the same page: this is coming from the Starliner speaker?” You don’t notice anything else–any other noises, any other weird configs in there?” they asked before confirming they would investigate.
“There are several noises I’d prefer not to hear inside my spaceship, including this one that Boeing Starliner is now making,” former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield posted
NASA sent a video clip and explanation of the pings to X on Sunday. While the feedback was unsettling, it did not have a technical impact on Starliner or the station’s operations, including Starliner undocking, which is scheduled to take place no earlier than September 6. Starliner launched on June 5 with two crewmembers after years of delays in production and weeks of technical problems. Wilmore, Suni Williams and NASA ground control all reported problems almost immediately after the trip to the ISS. Engineers have spent weeks trying to fix the problem after docking successfully with the station. Wilmore and Williams’ eight-day trip to the ISS has now turned into a multi-month mission that will make them a part of NASA Crew-9.
