“I’ve got a question about Starliner,” astronaut Butch Wilmore said Saturday while contacting Mission Control, according to Ars Technica. “There’s a strange noise coming through the speaker … I don’t know what’s making it.”
Wilmore wanted the experts in Houston to hear what he was hearing, suspecting it might be an anomaly in the connection between the space station and the Starliner. A recording of the event revealed a distinctive, audible pinging sound when Wilmore placed his microphone near the connection from Starliner.
NEWS: Boeing Starliner is now emitting strange noises.https://t.co/Eq9eTW1Ml2 pic.twitter.com/VfXMgWfsI0
— ALEX (@ajtourville) September 1, 2024
“Alright Butch, that one came through,” Mission Control responded. “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 added.
After another round of pings, Wilmore concluded the conversation. “Alright, over to you. Call us if you figure it out,” he said.
As of Monday, no explanation had been given for the noise.
There are several noises I'd prefer not to hear inside my spaceship, including this one that @Boeing Starliner is now making. pic.twitter.com/NMMPMo5dtt
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) September 1, 2024
On Friday, the Starliner is scheduled to depart the space station, but it will not carry Wilmore and Suni Williams. Instead, NASA plans to bring Starliner home on autopilot, with ground crews on Earth controlling the return.
Wilmore and Williams, who arrived at the space station aboard the Starliner in June for what was initially a short mission, have stayed longer due to safety concerns with the spacecraft. These concerns have led to the decision to send the Starliner back this week without its crew, with the astronauts now slated to return to Earth in February.
Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, mentioned that discussions between NASA and Boeing about having the astronauts onboard for their return “came down to a little disagreement about risk,” according to the New York Post.
