A creepy, sonar-like sound coming by means of Starliner’s speaker posed a short thriller on the ISS

Starliner is scheduled to undock from the Worldwide Area Station and make its return trip to Earth uncrewed in only a matter of days, however it apparently nonetheless has a couple of new mysteries left in it to throw on the group earlier than it departs. On Saturday, astronaut Butch Wilmore alerted NASA’s Mission Management about an unexplained “unusual noise” coming from a speaker within the spacecraft, which you’ll hear in an audio clip of the dialog shared on a NASASpaceflight discussion board by meteorologist Rob Dale (noticed by Ars Technica). It begins at across the 45-second mark, ringing out on a gradual beat. “I don’t know what’s making it,” Wilmore stated.

NASA has since stated that the sound has stopped in a press release to SpaceNews’ Jeff Foust on Monday, and attributed it to an audio configuration between the ISS and Starliner. It was simply speaker suggestions, in accordance with the area company.

The noise was a little bit of a head-scratcher over the weekend. After confirming with Mission Management on Saturday that they may hear the sound too, as soon as Wilmore introduced his mic over to the speaker, the flight controller in Houston stated, “It was sort of like a pulsing noise, nearly like a sonar ping.” Wilmore then let it play for about 20 seconds extra earlier than wrapping up the decision. “Simply to ensure I’m on the identical web page, that is emanating from the speaker in Starliner,” Mission Management requested, “you don’t discover the rest, some other noises, any bizarre configs in there?” The astronaut famous on the time that every part else appeared regular.

“The area station audio system is complicated, permitting a number of spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is not uncommon to expertise noise and suggestions,” NASA stated in its clarification to Foust on Monday. “The crew is requested to contact mission management after they hear sounds originating within the comm system.” The incident had no affect to the crew or Starliner’s departure schedule, it added.

The Boeing spacecraft has been docked with the ISS since early June, and engineers have since had their fingers full making an attempt to resolve the problems that arose throughout its first crewed flight. When Starliner lastly heads again to Earth on September 6, it’ll be leaving its crew — Wilmore and NASA astronaut Suni Williams — behind on the ISS, the place they’ll proceed to work for the subsequent few months whereas they look forward to a ride home from SpaceX in February 2025.

Replace, September 2 2024, 2:30PM ET: This story has been up to date to incorporate a press release and clarification from NASA.