Astronaut Chris Hadfield has expressed his concern over strange noises emitted by the Boeing Starliner.
The International Space Station alumni took to Twitter/X and said the sounds made by the spacecraft were worrying. The “strange noises” made by the vessel went viral following initial reports from the on-board crew.
Reacting to the eerie noises made, Commander Hadfield wrote: “There are several noises I’d prefer not to hear inside my spaceship, including this one that Boeing Starliner is now making.”
Members of the public were equally concerned and likened the sonar sounds to a “horrorshow”. Others were left considering the weight of Hadfield’s words given his experience off planet.
One user wrote: “You saying this hits a lot differently than nearly anyone else saying this.” Another worried: “That is some Stanley Kubrick level horrorshow right there…” Some have made reference to the Alien series of films and joked there was no trouble at all.
“Everything is fine. It’s just the heartbeat of the thing clinging to the outside making noise…,” one joked. Another quoted the tagline of the original Ridley Scott feature, writing: “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
Other references to popular, space-based horror films were made by worried members of the public. One wrote: “Nope. I’ve seen Event Horizon. Get rid of it.” Another joked:” Have they tried turning it off and on again?”
Astronaut Butch Wilmore confirmed the strange noise and had radioed Mission Control at Johnson Space Center from the International Space Station to enquire about the mysterious sound.
An audio recording of the report has since emerged and Mission Control can be heard confirming the noises Butch was referencing. They said: “It was kind of like a pulsating noise, almost like a sonar ping.”
It is believed the noise is coming from a speaker inside the spacecraft, with initial reports of the strange noise made yesterday. Astronauts and officials are yet to confirm what the noise is.