The stranded Starliner spacecraft of Boeing has begun emitting an unusual pulsing noise, as reported by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore to the mission control on Saturday. Neither Wilmore nor the agency’s staff on the ground were able to immediately explain the source of this strange sound.
In June, Wilmore and his crewmate Suni Williams traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Starliner in its maiden crewed voyage. However, due to malfunctioning thrusters and helium leaks, the spacecraft has been unable to safely return back to Earth, leaving both astronauts stranded on the ISS until a SpaceX Dragon capsule brings them back next year.
In a radio transmission that was allegedly sent to the Johnson Space Center in Texas, Wilmore informed mission control about an unusual noise coming from Starliner. He stated, “I’ve got a question about Starliner. There’s a strange noise coming through the speaker… I don’t know what’s making it.
Wilmore then held his microphone up to the speaker for mission control to hear the repetitive gong-like noise.
Mission control replied, “Alright Butch, that one came through. It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping.
He then added, “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,” before the unexplained noise repeated. Alright, over to you. Call us if you figure it out,” he concluded.
The exchange between Wilmore and mission control was picked up by American meteorologist Rob Dale, who posted a recording of the conversation to a space travel forum on Saturday.
Before its launch in June, Boeing’s Starliner project had experienced years of delays and a budget overrun of $1.5 billion. Its first crewed flight was initially slated for 2017, but recurring technical glitches and certification issues pushed the date back to May of this year. A helium leak in the Starliner’s onboard propulsion system resulted in multiple launch dates being scrubbed that month, until Boeing declared that a “small helium leak” was not a “safety of flight issue,” and the craft was deemed safe for spaceflight.
While en route to the ISS, Starliner’s crew reported four helium leaks and issues with five thrusters; another leak was revealed shortly afterward. Although Boeing has maintained that the malfunctioning Starliner is capable of bringing Wilmore and Williams home safely, NASA announced last week that it will return to Earth without a crew, while the two astronauts will come back in February aboard a capsule operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.