Afrigather 
Starliner is scheduled to undock from the Worldwide House Station and make its return journey to Earth uncrewed in only a matter of days, nevertheless it apparently nonetheless has a number of new mysteries left in it to throw on the workforce 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 be able to 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 an announcement 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 house 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 form 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 anything, another noises, any bizarre configs in there?” The astronaut famous on the time that all the pieces else appeared regular.
“The house station audio system is complicated, permitting a number of spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it’s common to expertise noise and suggestions,” NASA stated in its clarification to Foust on Monday. “The crew is requested to contact mission management once 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 arms full attempting to unravel 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 await a trip residence from SpaceX in February 2025.
Replace, September 2 2024, 2:30PM ET: This story has been up to date to incorporate an announcement and clarification from NASA.
