Stranded Astronaut Reports 'Strange Noise' Coming From Boeing Starliner, NASA Reveals What Caused It
The astronaut's concern over the noise comes just days before the spacecraft is set to fly autonomously to Earth.
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, who is currently stranded on the International Space Station space alongside Suni Williams, recently contacted Mission Control to report a "strange noise" coming from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station.
As reported by Ars Technica, Wilmore contacted Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday, August 31 to express concern over the noise, which came from the Boeing Starliner docked to the ISS. "I've got a question about Starliner," he said. "There's a strange noise coming through the speaker ... I don't know what's making it."
He told the team at Mission Control to listen to the audio from the spacecraft. He later held up his microphone to the speaker from which the strange audio was coming, at which point the Houston flight controllers could hear a pinging sound. "It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping," Mission Control told him. "I'll do it one more time, and I'll let y'all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what's going on," he replied. "Call us if you figure it out."
On Monday, NASA acknowledged the recording of the report to Mission Control, which was shared online by Michigan meteorologist Rob Dale. NASA revealed that the sound has since stopped and shared what caused it in the first place.
"The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner," reads a statement. "The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback. ... 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, Sept. 6."
The Boeing Starliner, which experienced issues on its journey to the International Space Station, is set to fly back autonomously to Earth on Friday, September 6. Wilmore and Williams, however, will not be on board.
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Instead, the two astronauts will return to Earth in February 2025 via a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Their journey to the ISS was originally planned to last just eight days in June, but their mission has faced numerous issues due to helium leaks and thruster failures on the Starliner.