Two astronauts are currently stranded in space, and as they await their rescue they are reportedly hearing some concerning noises.
Butch Wilmore and fellow astronaut Suni Williams have been on the ISS (International Space Station) since June 6.
They arrived aboard Boeing's Starliner for what was originally planned as a week-long mission.
However, due to technical issues, including thruster malfunctions and helium leaks, the Starliner will return to Earth unmanned, per the Daily Mail.
The two astronauts are now expected to remain on the ISS until February 2025, when SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to bring them back to Earth.
The Starliner program has faced numerous challenges since its inception, with over $4 billion in taxpayer funds invested in its development.
Despite safely delivering Wilmore and Williams to the ISS, the spacecraft encountered significant issues, including additional helium leaks and the failure of five out of its 28 thrusters.
While conducting their usual tasks aboard the ISS, Wilmore encountered something unexpected last week.
On Saturday, August 31, he contacted Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to report a strange sound coming from the Starliner's speaker system.
The report comes just days before the troubled vehicle is scheduled to undock from the ISS and attempt an unmanned return to Earth.
"I've got a question about Starliner. There's a strange noise coming through the speaker, and I didn't know if you can connect into the Starliner ... I don't know what's making it," Wilmore informed mission control, per Ars Technica.
In response, mission control confirmed that they could configure a way to listen to the sound. Wilmore then held a communication device up to the Starliner’s speakers.
After an initial unsuccessful attempt, the sound was transmitted to mission control, which described it as "a pulsating noise, almost like a sonar ping."
Wilmore played the sound again, and this time it was successfully recorded. "I'll let you figure it out," Wilmore told mission control.
They responded: "Good recording, thanks Butch. We will pass it onto the team and let you know what we find."
They also confirmed that the noise was indeed coming from the Starliner's speaker system.
The decision to use SpaceX's Crew Dragon to return the astronauts to Earth is a significant setback for Boeing.
The company has struggled for years to get its Starliner program off the ground, only to be overshadowed by its competitor.
"We have had so many embarrassments lately, we're under a microscope. This just made it, like, 100 times worse," an anonymous Boeing employee allegedly told the New York Post.
"We hate SpaceX. We talk s*** about them all the time, and now they're bailing us out."
