Strange sound coming from Starliner explained by NASA | LiveNOW from FOX

making the rounds as social social media NASA providing an explanation for a strange sound reported by astronaut Butch wil. More coming from the Starliner, Do you want to play this for you here? right now? So you can give it a listen. You can connect into the Starliner and let me, uh, keep you here. I don't, I don't know. what what's making it. at negative Butch. We did not. hear anything. All right. but that 1 came through. it was kind of like a pulsing noise almost like a Sonar ping. all right, that was just a portion of the conversation. obtained by TMZ but NASA, receiving, no question. A lot of questions about this So they posted on X or Twitter saying a pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA Astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard, the international Space Station. is stopped 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's common to experience. noise and feedback. the crew is asked to contact Mission Control when they hear sounds originating in the cam system. the speaker feedback will more reported has no technical impact to the crew. Starliner or station operations. Including starliners uncrewed. undocking from the station. no earlier than Friday. September 6th. a lot to discuss related to Star liner and the future of space travel. So I do want to bring in a friend of the show. Ken Kramer is the founder and managing editor of space up close and a research scientist. Thank you so much for taking the time as always to join us here. Hello, thanks for having me. I'm always glad to talk to your audience. All right? Well first off I want to talk about that audio because it was circulating all over social media You had just about everyone commenting but from NASA's explanation there it sounds like it's not. a huge deal and it's kind of mystery solved, right? That's right. So much to do about nothing. It's just built up to get clicks. for stories. Um, just feedback like maybe you and I would have uh, or you would have with some of your other correspondents. And, and speakers. So, it's, it's really nothing to worry about. there are serious problems, but this is not an issue. And we know that Butch and sunny will not be coming home with the Starliner when it does return to Earth. in just a few days. What led NASA overall to make what I imagine was a very tough decision. Yeah. no. This is a serious issue. Unlike the sounds. Okay. So as you probably know, uh, after they've reached orbit and while they were ready to dock with the international, Space Station, um, they had the issues with helium leaks 5 helium leaks, developed, and several of the thrusters failed and they need those thrusters. Um, to duck. to maneuver to fire. So they can Dock at the ISS and they need the helium to pressurize the tanks. So, the thrusters will fire so, um, they did tests in orbit, okay. Hot fire tests and found out that the, uh, the thrusters work fine. These are the reaction. control system thrusters. is 28 of them 27 out of 28 work. fine and 2 tests, and there were no further helium leaks. but, um, They also. decided. on to err on the side of safety because when they did ground tests at White Sands Missile, Uh range out in New Mexico. the found that there were these Teflon seals that expanded a little bit. and when that happens, they could potentially block. the fuel. and if they blocked the fuel then they cannot fire and they were overheating. And if that happens, they can't get home because they need those thrusters to slow the spacecraft down. It's a braking maneuver. so that they can then re-enter the atmosphere. the Earth's atmosphere, and return home and land. Pinpoint, they need to have a, you know, pretty much a Pinpoint Landing in the desert. This is a land Landing. This will be the the first time. American astronauts land on land. Um, in in the desert Other than the space shuttle, this will be on. on um airbags out in the desert. So it's a very different from anything us has done before. so, uh, looking back on it. when they saw that. that Teflon expansion And they don't know how much worse it would get. during the real firing because the tests they did were very short, they were intense, but they were short. So they decided NASA to err on the side of safety. That was a tough call. There were good arguments on both sides. tough call. But you know, learning the lessons from Challenger and Columbia. We want the astronauts to come home. They must come home because if they don't it'll be a terrible day, and it would endanger the program. and destroy the family. So we can't have that happen. So although it's almost certainly safe for the astronauts to come home on Starliner. But that's Boeing's opinion. because of all the testing that was done. they feel it would have been okay, but NASA. can't afford to to have this happen. So that's that's why they um, that's why the decision was made. And we can talk about that. um, in in your future questions, But Starliner will now come home. later this week, no earlier than the 6th, there'll be a briefing, uh, tomorrow I believe on the 4th and NASA will update us and the media. on on uh, the exact plan. I imagine that a lot of eyes will be on Star liner, Assuming it does return on the 6th to see how it lands. If it lands safely. I imagine so many people will be watching it. very very closely. Absolutely. everybody's going to be watching it everybody who's interested. everybody who cares about? space and Science and human life? will all be watching it very intently Luckily there won't be any humans on board. So if there is a mishap um, then it will not be a bad day, be a bad day for Boeing, but not not a bad day for astronauts. So yeah, everybody will be watching most likely. will be safe. and that's what we all hope. Is that, it'll be a safe landing. and, but then after that, um, Starliner will have to go under go. modifications because this problems cannot happen again with the leaks. and the, uh, with thrusters, um, failing to fire. So the next mission of the star liner was going to be in febuary. It's now Delayed indefinitely. at least until August. They launched every 6 months, and so, um, they'll have to prove that any changes they make are reliable and robust. and can be repeated safely. So it's going to have a lot of Downstream consequences and I think that's what should happen. all along. and that's what's been decided. Now, uh, by NASA and Boeing. so Starliner 1 will launch no sooner than 1 year from now. in the meantime. you know, we have the crew Dragon. That's why NASA has 2 ways to space. They have the SpaceX crew dragon and the Boeing Starliner. it's called dissimilar redundancy that way if 1 goes down, the other can still launch So, the consequence of that is um, another thing you wanted to know about, you know what? What what's coming up well besides the Star Line are coming home, the next crew dragon has to go up because um, that was what Butch and Sunni will come home on, but it'll only go up with 2 astronauts instead of 4. So they're going to leave 2 seats empty. so that when they uh so they'll be available. next. februari. 25, which in Sunni will take those those seats. And so there's a lot of Downstream impacts from this and the 2 that were were taken off the mission, they'll have to fly at a later date. So they'll be impacts with the reshuffling of the crews But you know, that's a lot better than the alternative. Do you want to talk about something that so many people have mentioned and I want to get your take on it because we've heard so many people say that Butch and Sunni are stranded in space, Can I get your take on that? They're absolutely not stranded. They're happy to be there. I'm glad you asked me. every other Every story has it and I tell all these Outlets the same thing. they're not stranded, they're not stuck, They could come home. There's another crew capsule up their crew 8 in an emergency. they would have come home on the star liner because they did those tests. hot fire tests in orbit. Why do they do it in orbit? Because once it's separates from the ISS service module on the crew module, um, on the way back down, they also separate. so you can't collect any more data, so they can only do those tests. to find out what's wrong with the star liner. when it's stocked at the, at the ISS. So they can come home. They're not stuck, they're not stranded. In fact, they're extremely happy to be there. Um, yeah, 8 weeks turned in um I'm sorry 8 days turned into 8 weeks 8 months if you're going to be an astronaut, you got to be flexible. and believe me, they're happy to be up there Longer 8 days was always too short. so, uh, I missed the holidays but you know what? If you're in the military and you're in the astronaut Corps, that's life, that's the way it is. So, this is their probably their last mission, So every day they're up, there is a gift and this just happened, you know, last year, Frank Rubio NASA astronaut he had to stay for a year instead of 6 months. because the so use capsule. The Russian. So use capsule developed a coolant leak and they weren't sure the astronauts could come home. That would be too hot and they would die from from the heat. So, what Russia did was send up an uncrewed capsule. and then, uh, they brought the, uh, the other 1 home. And so then they stayed a year. those 3. astronauts. And cosmonauts. And so now the result is Frank Rubio has the American spaceflight record for longest duration. by a male astronaut from NASA. So he's the record holder uh, due due to that. So I'm sure he's happy about that and I'm, and I know that the the crews are safe and the families are praying for them. But the families are happy. that their loved ones are in space doing what they want to do. The ISS is all about science. I'm a scientist. they're contributing they're extra hands to get things done. That wouldn't be done. otherwise and the ISS is all about. Helping Humanity. so believe me when you played that tape at the beginning and Sunni was jumping all over the place with her hair. That's the way she feels and that's the way she feels today. So people don't have to be worried. If the crew Dragon went down now, that would be a problem. and there was an issue. a couple of days ago. and last month. that the uh, you know, the SpaceX Falcon 9 suffered 2 rocket failures and so it was temporarily grounded and then you couldn't launch crew 9 and that would be a complicated situation. but everything's back online. Now, Hopefully everything will work. but space, you're always on the edge of disaster. So you must be constantly Vigilant. It's not like flying on an airplane. You're putting your life on the line and, you know, it and if you don't want to do that, and you don't want to stay a long time. and all you want to be is a tourist. This is not for you. okay? they're happy to be there. and that is 1 of many reasons. I will never be going to space Ken Kramer. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. Anything else? 1 minute 1 more thing, really interesting is your clip is going to launch on October 10th. Okay. That's going to look for life on Jupiter's moon, Europa it's going to launch on a SpaceX 9. It is the biggest science Mission from NASA this year. So, you want to, you want to follow that because we want to find out, are we alone in the universe? Europa and Mars. are 2 of the Prime spots. So that's what's coming up. Also. we'll be looking forward to that, then. thank you again for taking the time to be here with us today. We appreciate