The spaceship Starlinercoupled to the International Space Station Since last June, despite having planned its return to Earth for that same month, it continues to cause concerns to the POT. The American astronaut Barry Wilmore called the team Johnson Space Center last Saturday due to a repetitive sound coming from the Boeing-made craftThe conversation was posted by NASA Space Flight forum member, meteorologist Rob Dale.
‘I have a question about Starliner,’ Wilmore radioed Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston.There is a strange noise coming out of the speaker… I don’t know what is causing it..’
In the recording, Wilmore asks the NASA team to set up their call so they can hear the noise being made on the Starliner. Later, you can hear a repetitive sound with a frequent rhythm, one or two per secondwhich at times accelerates. The team member on Earth describes it as ‘almost like a sonar ping‘.
NEWS 🚨: Astronauts are reporting that Boeing Starliner is emitting strange “sonar like noises”
This is the actual audio of it:
pic.twitter.com/iMuIkFfj6U— Latest in space (@latestinspace) September 1, 2024
This sound could have a simple explanation that does not point to new problems in the Starliner, such as a very specific type of feedback which one Reddit user compared it to, The Verge reports. Neither Wilmore nor the NASA ground crew member he spoke to seemed particularly concerned about the conversation.Okay, it’s your turn. Call us if you find out.‘Wilmore told Mission Control. ‘We’ll pass it along to the team and let them know what we find,’ they replied.
This is not the first time that an astronaut has detected such a phenomenon. For example, during the first manned space flight in China in 2003the astronaut Yang Liwei heard what he described as an iron bucket being struck by a wooden hammer, while in orbit. On that occasion it was concluded that the noise It was due to small deformations in the spacecraft due to a pressure difference.
The Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to return to Earth next month. September 6thContrary to original plans, it will be done without astronauts. Suni Williams and Barry Wilmorewhich it transported to the International Space Station last June, autonomously.
Initially, the astronauts were to spend 8 days on the station and return with the Starliner. However, a series of technical problems —5 helium leaks detected and 5 thrusters failed during the approach maneuver to the International Space Station— led NASA to delay their return several times while it studied them. Last August, it made the decision that Williams and Wilmore will return to Earth next February. aboard a ship SpaceX Crew Dragon faces doubts about Starliner’s reliability.
UPDATE
A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped. The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner. The space…
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) September 2, 2024
NASA explained this Monday in a message on X that the “pulsating sound” detected by astronaut Barry Wilmore has already stopped. The feedback sound was caused by “an audio setup between the space station and Starliner”. According to the space agency, the speaker feedback incident “has no technical impact on the crew, Starliner or station operations,” and Boeing’s spacecraft maintains its planned return date for next Friday.