A NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) reported hearing a “strange noise” coming from the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, shortly before its scheduled autopilot return to Earth.
Astronaut Butch Wilmore recorded the noise and sent it to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston on August 31, 2024, claiming that he had heard a “strange noise coming through the speaker”.
On the recording, which was shared on YouTube on September 1, 2024, a pulsating sound emanating at steady intervals can be heard coming from the Starliner’s speaker system.
Wilmore held his microphone close to the speaker to transmit the sound to the ground team. Mission Control said they could not hear the sound the first time, but after a second listen, they confirmed that the noise sounded “almost like a sonar ping.”
Wilmore then played the sound one more time, and Mission Control said the recording would be “passed on to the team,” and they would let him know what they found.
The astronaut said that the source of the noise could be related to the connection between the ISS and the spacecraft, or it could be an internal issue inside the aircraft. The issue is currently being investigated by NASA and Boeing.
The Starliner is scheduled to return to Earth without the two astronauts currently aboard on September 6, 2024. The spacecraft should land in the New Mexico desert.
On August 24, 2024, NASA announced that the astronauts will be able to return to Earth in February 2025 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
In June 2024 astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore were stranded on the ISS due to discovery of helium leaks and thruster problems on the Starliner’s spacecraft.