The National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) finally unraveled the mystery behind the reported “strange noise” emanating from the faulty Boeing Starliner carrying astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stuck in space owing to technical glitches.
According to NASA's Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Wilmore contacted on August 31 to report the issue. The now-viral audio clip of the exchange was first recorded and shared by meteorologist Rob Dale.
"It was kind of like a pulsating noise, almost like a sonar ping", Mission Control explained.
Boeing Starliner sound: What did NASA say?
Clearing all the speculations over the pulsing sound, the top space agency on Monday asserted that the feedback was a “common” occurrence and it posed no threat to the crew or the Starliner itself.
“A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped,” NASA said in a statement released Monday.
“The feedback from the speaker 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,” the statement continued.
“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, Sept. 6,” it added.
The mysterious development occurred right ahead of the upcoming undocking of the uncrewed Boeing Starliner from the International Space Station (ISS) which is scheduled to take place on September 6.
The two veteran NASA astronauts Williams and Wilmore embarked on an one-week-long space venture. However, their stay got extended owing to technical glitches including helium leaks and thruster malfunctions.
Their return is now scheduled for February 2025, when they will make their way back to Earth in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
