NASA offers an explanation for the unusual sounds emanating from the Starliner spacecraft.
Mission Control received a pulsating sound from the Boeing Starliner speaker, as reported by astronaut Butch Wilmore.
NASA has solved the mystery behind the "strange noise" heard by an astronaut on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft while aboard the International Space Station.
On Saturday, just days before the spacecraft was set to leave the station and return to Earth on autopilot, Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston received a report from astronaut Butch Wilmore about a pulsating sound coming from a speaker inside the spacecraft.
NASA has determined that the pulsing sound from the speaker on the Starliner spacecraft was caused by an audio configuration issue between the space station and the spacecraft.
"NASA stated that the space station audio system is intricate, enabling various spacecraft and modules to be linked, and it is typical to encounter noise and feedback. The crew is instructed to contact mission control if they hear sounds emanating from the comm system. The speaker feedback reported by Wilmore does not affect the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner's uncrewed departure from the station no earlier than Friday, Sept. 6."
The pulsating sound mystery arises as Starliner is set to undock from the space station without any crew and attempt an autonomous return landing in the New Mexico desert.
Astronauts Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been on the space station since June, will remain in space until February after NASA deemed it too risky to bring the experienced pilots back to Earth on Starliner. The current plan is to bring the astronauts back in a SpaceX capsule.
The weeklong trip for the astronauts was originally planned, but the mission has been hindered by thruster failures and helium leaks.
The first crew trip of Starliner was expected by Boeing to revive the spacecraft program, which had faced years of delays and rising costs. Despite recent thruster tests in space and on the ground, the company maintained that Starliner was safe.
This report was contributed to by Bradford Betz of Planet Chronicle Digital and The Associated Press.
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