NASA explains mysterious sonar-like noises in Starliner, clears it for return to Earth

A day after NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore heard weird noises inside Boeing’s Starliner module attached to the International Space Station, the agency commented on the origin of the mysterious sound.

Wilmore streamed the pulsing noise down to Earth where an engineer compared it to a sonar ping. The sound was emitted by Starliner’s onboard speaker, Wilmore didn’t notice any suspicious noises made by the capsule itself.

The communication clip between Wilmore and Houston went viral on social media and everyone was scratching their head figuring out what was happening onboard the ISS. Planetary scientist and ex-NASA engineer Dr. Philip Metzger concluded that It might be a mere electromagnetic interference—a very common, hard-to-eliminate phenomenon in space intercom systems. “Spent 10 years on Shuttle comm/nav then 7 years on ISS comm, and we were always chasing stray signals,” Metzger added.

Some social media investigators took a different approach, as what they saw was simply yet another problem of the troublesome, now apparently sonar-equipped, module.

Therefore, they tried to make fun of the situation, like this “creative” investigation presenting an interesting, although unlikely, theory on the origin of Starliner’s latest “feature”:

Anyway, NASA analyzed the sound and relatively quickly came to its own explanation for the pulsing sound that has stopped in the meantime:

“The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner. The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback. The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system. The speaker feedback Wilmore reported has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner’s uncrewed undocking from the station no earlier than Friday, Sept. 6.”

Starliner experienced helium leaks and thruster issues on the way to the ISS; however, things physically bouncing within its structure are not a new entry to Boeing’s list of things to worry about.

Still, the problems were big enough for NASA which ultimately decided to play it safe and send Boeing’s astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth onboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon module.

Starliner will fly home as soon as this Friday to prove that it can still offer a safe human transportation platform for NASA, providing a welcomed redundancy in case SpaceX’s workhorses Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon experience problems of their own.