An astronaut on board NASA's Starliner spacecraft has reported hearing unusual sounds while in space.
The Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to depart from the International Space Station on September 6 and return to Earth using autonomous navigation.
On Saturday, a NASA astronaut at the ISS reported hearing a "strange noise" emanating from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which is scheduled to depart the station and return to Earth on autopilot in a few days.
Butch Wilmore, an astronaut, contacted Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston to inquire about the source of the noise.
Wilmore's device picked up a pulsating sound emanating at steady intervals during an audio recording of the exchange.
"Mission Control confirms that the signal was received after not hearing it initially. The sound was described as pulsating, similar to a sonar ping."
Wilmore plays the sound one more time and tells Mission Control, "I'll do it one more time and let you all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what's going on."
Wilmore is informed by Mission Control that the recording will be forwarded and they will notify him of the findings.
Wilmore clarifies that the sound is emanating from the speaker inside the Starliner.
A bizarre sound was initially reported by Ars Technica, citing a recording first obtained and shared by Michigan-based meteorologist Rob Dale.
Boeing and Mission Control have been contacted by Planet Chronicle Digital to determine the source of the sound.
The ISS will release Starliner, which is devoid of any cargo, and attempt to land autonomously in the New Mexico desert.
NASA postponed the return of Wilmore and Suni Williams until February due to the mission's problems, which included thruster failures and helium leaks. The original plan was for a weeklong trip in early June.
The first crew trip of Starliner was expected by Boeing to revive the spacecraft program, which had faced delays and rising costs for years. Despite recent thruster tests in space and on the ground, the company maintained that Starliner was safe.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
science
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