Two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) until next year have reported hearing ‘strange’ noises during their time aboard.
On June 5, NASA test pilots Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita Williams embarked on a short trip to the ISS, with plans to return to Earth later that month.
However, they encountered trouble when the new Boeing Starliner capsule, intended to bring them home, experienced a series of technical issues.
As a result, Wilmore and Williams have been stranded on the ISS for nearly three months.
And it doesn’t look like they’ll be heading home anytime soon. NASA confirmed in a press conference on August 24 that the astronauts will be picked up by the crew of SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, with an expected return date of February 2025.
Meanwhile, the Starliner is scheduled to undock from the ISS and return to Earth without anyone on board in just a few days, on September 6.
Though the pair remain confident that NASA will bring them home safely, they’ve reported hearing strange noises while in space.
On Saturday, August 31, Butch Wilmore reportedly reached out to Houston’s Johnson Space Center to express his concerns.
He said, “I’ve got a question about Starliner. There’s a strange noise coming through the speaker, and I’m not sure if you can connect to the Starliner to investigate it. I don’t know what’s causing it.”
Mission control confirmed they could set up a way to play the sound, so Wilmore held a phone up to the Starliner’s speakers for them to listen.
They responded, “Butch, we heard that. It was a pulsating noise, almost like a sonar ping.”
“Good recording, thanks, Butch. We’ll pass it on to the team and let you know what we find.”
They asked once more if there was any other noise and confirmed that it was coming from the Starliner.
Wilmore could then be heard telling mission control that he hopes they will “scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what’s going on.”
The cause of the noise has not yet been determined.
Although the stranded astronauts have enough supplies and resources to last until their rescue, experts have warned of the potential ‘life-altering’ effects they may experience from spending such an extended period in space.
This includes loss of bone density and muscle atrophy, changes in heart function, vision problems, and intense radiation exposure.
The longer they’re stuck up there, the more severe these effects are likely to become.
Rachael Seidler, a professor of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology at the University of Florida, told DailyMail.com: “Generally, almost all of the physiological changes we observe from human spaceflight appear to be dose-dependent.”
“The longer you’re there, the bigger the change.”
