Boeing Starliner spacecraft starts making ‘strange’, haunting noises

‘I don’t know what’s making it,’ said one of the astronauts who were carried to space onboard troubled spacecraft and are now stuck on the International Space Station

Unexplained noises have been heard coming from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

One of the Nasa astronauts who flew to the International Space Station on board the craft noticed that there was a “strange noise” coming from its speaker.

“I don’t know what’s making it,” he said.

Butch Wilmore, the astronaut who heard the sound, discussed it in a conversation with his colleagues in mission control, on the ground. He asked them to “scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what’s going on”, asking them to “call us if you figure it out”.

Mission control noted that it sounded like a “pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping”.

Neither Mr Wilmore nor the Nasa staff in mission control appeared especially anxious about the noise. But Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut who spent time on the space station, suggested that it would be worrying.

“There are several noises I’d prefer not to hear inside my spaceship, including this one that Boeing Starliner is now making,” he wrote on X.

Mr Wilmore and his colleague Suni Williams flew to the International Space Station on board Starliner in June. But even before the spacecraft had launched, it was hit by troubles, and those only continued once they were on board.

Nasa has been attempting to find a solution since then. Last week, it said that the two astronauts would not come home on Starliner as planned, but that it would be flown into Earth’s atmosphere with nobody on board and that they would be brought back in a SpaceX vehicle early next year.

Starliner could leave as soon as next week, Nasa has said. The space agency and Boeing have left the spacecraft at the International Space Station for much longer than expected to try and work out the cause of the various problems that have blighted Starliner.

The eerie sounds were recorded by a Michigan meteorologist called Rob Dale, who captured audio of the conversation between the astronauts and Mission Control. He posted them to the Nasa SpaceFlight forum and they were first reported by Ars Technica.

Nasa is yet to give any information on what the sound could be or how concerning it might be. The sound was discovered over the Labor Day weekend in the US, and many staff may not be at work on the federal holiday on Monday.