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The NASA astronauts who are stuck in space have captured “strange noises” coming from the Boeing Starliner.
The chilling audio was recorded aboard the International Space Station days before it was due to return back down to Earth on autopilot.
Butch Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been trapped in space since June after arriving at the ISS for what was meant to be an eight day mission.
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They were the first crew to fly the spacecraft but ran into serious issues with Starliner's propulsion system.
Now, it looks like the astronauts could be there until 2025 after multiple problems were found in the Starliner’s thrusters.
Five of Starliner's maneuvering thrusters had reportedly stalled, with five helium leaks and a faulty propellant valve.
Boeing had insisted that the spacecraft was safe, allowing thruster tests that had taken place both in space and on the ground.
NEWS: Boeing Starliner is now emitting strange noises.https://t.co/Eq9eTW1Ml2 pic.twitter.com/VfXMgWfsI0
— ALEX (@ajtourville) September 1, 2024
NASA deemed it too unsafe for the pair to return to Earth and instead they will need to wait until early next year when they will be picked up by SpaceX Crew-9.
The plan is for the Starliner to undock from the ISS and return to Earth empty but just days before it was due to depart, Wilmore alerted Houston to some strange noises.
The astronaut radioed in to Mission Control to let them know about the unidentified audio coming from the spacecraft.
In the recorded exchange, Wilmore can be heard holding up a phone to the speakers so that Mission Control on Earth could listen to the sounds that had been heard emanating from the speaker inside the Starliner.
They responded to Wilmore, saying: “Butch, that one came through. It was kind of like a pulsating noise, almost like a sonar ping.”
Wilmore then replied, stating: “I’ll do it one more time and let you all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what’s going on.”
Mission Control can be heard saying that they would pass the recording along and that they would get back to him to let him know what they find.
However, it’s still not known if the source of the mysterious sound has been located.
It was officially decided last month that the two astronauts will remain in space until February 2025, when they will hitch a ride back to Earth with a SpaceX crew.
Last month, Ken Bowersox, Nasa's director of space operations, said: “Our chances of an uncrewed Starliner return have increased a little bit based on the way things have gone over the last week or two.
“We know that at some point we need to bring Butch and Suni home.”
