American astronaut Barry Wilmore called NASA's ground crew for help on Saturday because of a repetitive banging sound coming from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. The interaction was captured by a NASA space flight Member of the forum, which included a recording of it. In a post That was it Seen by Art-Technica.
In the recording, Wilmore asks the NASA crew in Houston to set up their call so he can show them the noise, which he says is coming from the speaker inside Starliner. Then, a repetitive metallic sound is heard with a slight there-is-something-on-the-wing Vibrations can be heard. The Earthside crew member describes it as sounding “almost like a sonar ping.”
The mysterious sound could well have a very mundane explanation, such as a very specific type of feedback loop. One person on Reddit compared it to. At least, neither Wilmore nor the NASA ground crew member he spoke to seemed particularly concerned (although it does look a bit like unnerving Ganado theme of Resident evil 4).
Boeing's Starliner is currently scheduled to… Undocking on September 6 for an automated, uncrewed return to Earth, leaving its original intended passengers, Wilmore and fellow astronaut Sunita Williams, on the ISS until early next year.
