Strange Noises on Starliner Spacecraft

September 2nd, 2024

Update: “An Audio Configuration Between the Space Station and Starliner”

Via: Daily Mail:

NASA has identified the source of strange, ‘sonar-like’ sounds coming from inside Boeing’s Starliner capsule, and says that the noises have stopped as of now.

In an emailed statement, a NASA press officer told DailyMail.com that the cause was ‘an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner.’

An audio configuration issue could mean a lot of different things, but a retired NASA scientist told DailyMail.com that NASA is likely referring to a signal feedback loop.

Via: Ars Technica:

On Saturday NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed some strange noises emanating from a speaker inside the Starliner spacecraft.

“I’ve got a question about Starliner,” Wilmore radioed down to Mission Control, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There’s a strange noise coming through the speaker … I don’t know what’s making it.”

Wilmore said he was not sure if there was some oddity in the connection between the station and the spacecraft causing the noise, or something else. He asked the flight controllers in Houston to see if they could listen to the audio inside the spacecraft. A few minutes later, Mission Control radioed back that they were linked via “hardline” to listen to audio inside Starliner, which has now been docked to the International Space Station for nearly three months.

Wilmore, apparently floating in Starliner, then put his microphone up to the speaker inside Starliner. Shortly thereafter, there was an audible pinging that was quite distinctive. “Alright Butch, that one came through,” Mission control radioed up to Wilmore. “It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping.”

“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,” Wilmore replied. The odd, sonar-like audio then repeated itself. “Alright, over to you. Call us if you figure it out.”

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