Blitz Bureau
The mystery behind a “strange noise” that a NASA astronaut heard coming from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft while aboard the International Space Station has been solved, the space agency said on September 2.
Astronaut Butch Wilmore first reported the pulsating sound coming from a speaker inside the spacecraft to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston on August 31, just days before it was set to leave the station and return to Earth on autopilot.
NASA said in a statement on social media that the pulsating sound from the speaker has since stopped and determined the feedback was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner.
“The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback,” NASA said.
“The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system. The speaker feedback Wilmore reported has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner’s uncrewed undocking from the station no earlier than Friday, September 6,” it said.
The mystery of the pulsating sound comes as Starliner is slated to undock from the space station empty and attempt to return on autopilot with a touchdown in the New Mexico desert.
