Boeing’s Starliner started making a repeating ‘pulsing’ sound yesterday
It’s probably nothing.
I mean, it is incredibly disconcerting.
But it isn't a mechanical noise. It is a noise coming through the speakers themselves. As many have pointed out, it is almost definitely feedback of some form.
Definitely something to get sorted before you do anything TOO critical (feedback can potentially be a precursor to electrical or systems failure) but not a sign that doors are going to fall off imminently.
It is a noise coming through the speakers themselves. As many have pointed out, it is almost definitely feedback of some form.
Like back in the day when leaving a 2G GSM phone next to some computer speakers, it would make certain buzzes as it was receiving a text message or phone call.
Even if the doors won’t come flying off.. man that’s not what I would want to hear when I’m falling through space. Disconcerting is a good word for that.
The doors didn’t fall off. Just the front.
It's why they had to launch it outside of the environment
Is that typical?
In recent years, many things fell off Boeing products. Just thought I mention it. One of it was a door, or rather, where a door had been.
but not a sign the doors are going to fall off imminently.
I don't know about that, with explosive bolts being a legitimate rocket part I would not put it past Boeing to mix them up
They properly lubricated the doors with dish soap, so all is good.
Great Value dish soap, they were out of dawn
I’m wondering if it’s not some kind of assistive thing that got turned on randomly because it was up there too long.
For example, for docking, playing a sound that changed pitched as you got closer, etc.
That or an Easter egg engineers buried as a joke among themselves.
Given that the greatest amount of issues they had back on the ground and which led to the program being months or years late were software problems, this does not surprise me the slightest.
The starliner is to return unmanned, according to this article. Can you imagine being on the ISS, and watching the ship you should have taken shred apart into burning rain as it attempts to pierce the veil of our atmosphere.
On the flip side, can you imagine being stranded on the ISS, and watching the ship that could have taken you home gone down safely?
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. They’re holding up amazingly well, I don’t envy the astronauts right now.
I think if the chances of a catastrophic re-entry is more than 1% and it still makes it back ok, I would still be happy i stayed back. Who knows what an additional 300lbs might do?
They're professional astronauts who have worked their whole lives for the opportunity to get into space. Both Butch and Sunny were probably doing the last mission of their career with this trip, so having it extended from 8 days to 8 months could well be a dream come true for them.
well i mean, they've got the entire US government behind them in some capacity, so they're not likely to go anywhere lol.
They’re holding up amazingly well, I don’t envy the astronauts right now.
strongly suspect they're coping well lol. You gotta understand that people fight for any chance into space, and an opportunity to turn a 2 day trip into 6+ months? yeah, it'll require last moment changes to their lives but I imagine they're happy as hell. They've been training for decades for this.
As I said elsewhere: They should bring up the managers who are responsible for this program up with a SpaceX capsule, and let them descend with the Starliner.
I think it should be the suits and shareholders who destroyed Boeing's engineer-first culture.
I would be very unhappy if I saw this spacecraft, that still has probably more than 95% chance of bringing me home safely if something happened, leave with no alternative in sight.
leave with no alternative in sight.
?? spacex is gonna get them home, this is hyperbole.
now, if they, like me, despise musk, that part might sting, but I strongly doubt these professionals are overly concerned with that end. I'd prefer my managers ERRING ON THE SIDE OF SURVIVAL, and considering the noises the craft suddenly started making, yeah, prudent decision after all.
Boeing doesn't like it, but... tsk, thrusters aren't new technology, this shit shouldn't have been a problem in the first place, and certainly never made it to ORBIT without being 99.999% reliable. Boeing fucked up. Boeing's thruster contractor - Rocketdyne - has been in the business since the 50s. This should be locked down, proven tech. Yet somehow startup spacex that doesn't have 50+ years in space is whipping the shit out of Boeing + Rocketdyne, EVEN THOUGH BOEING WAS PAID MORE THAN SPACEX, only for it to end in this shit show.
NASA errs on the side of caution and it's the right decision.
Why does EVERY article contain links to Twitter?
Seriously. Journalists, do something besides scroll Twitter!
I thought the Great Exodus from xitter was a matter of critical mass not yet being attained. Enough readers have to be elsewhere to get journalists elsewhere.
No, I think it's just lazy journalists not learning new tools like Bluesky.
The only news in that story was that someone tweeted something. That is lazy. They were successful in stealing the clicks from the actual reporter.
Here is the thing. As of last week, Elon marks news that makes Trump look bad as spam (see NPR’s coverage of the Arlington Cemetery debacle).
So now the news stories not marked as spam are the news stories that are “Elon Approved”.
Why are any self respecting journalists still on Twitter hoping to publish things that Elon deems not to be spam.
I enjoyed that very brief period when Elon blocked being able to view an embedded tweet at all without logging into twitter, before they changed it to how it is now, where you can only see that one tweet but no replies, etc.
Just for that week or however long it lasted, I was so hopeful that we'd reached the end of this kind of shoddy "journalism" ("Look, here are some tweets I saw today that are kind of related to the subject of this article's click-bait title").
Right? I hate accidentally giving Twi(not X)tter my clicks
Investigative journalism has just become scrolling social media online because nobody answers the phone or their door to give comments in person to the media. That's why I just post stupid, silly shit. I'm like that guy behind the "on the scene" reporter making faces and wrecking the shot.
All praise the Omnissiah.
The Machine God speaks to us.
I think it's not happy with Boeing's tech-priests.
It’s just the loose bolts humming.
I'm not qualified in any sense to speculate, and so that's exactly what I'm going to do.
My first thought is that there is a configuration happening to bring it home which we already knew, and there is a bug or test tone that was activated and since no one writing the code is there, they just didn't notice it is still running.
Ah the assumption that it was tested first before being deployed to prod. Given what we know now about Boeing's "testing" and "certification" processes, or lack thereof, that may be a big assumption.
I try to always remember People, process and product. PPP. It helps remind me that the people are just like you and I, families and waking up each day to do a job. It's so easy for things to fall apart when there aren't the right tools or processes in place. My failures individually or as a team never left someone in outer space but I've had some doozies in my career.
This isn't addressing your comment but I guess it was on my mind. I do know that the majority of people want to do their best and I feel bad for them and those affected by a company's poor decisions.
Auto destruct sequence activated.
Also known as "Boeing Normal Operation"
It's prepping for return, practicing the sounds it's gonna make as it bounces off the atmosphere... Boeing, boeing, boeing
Rapid scheduled deconstruction
It has a heartbeat? Boeing what have you done?
It's the hearts of all the whistleblowers they've murdered, Telltale Heart style.
It's late, it should have become sentient Aug 29th
Event Horizon.
Starliner boot up noise stuck in a bootloop.
But seriously, it's a bit disturbing if a machine attached to your living quarters is malfunctioning.
one that, if it's already malfunctioning thrusters begin malfunctioning worse, could fuck the entire station.... yeah. pucker factor 5/5 when it starts making wonky noises
Sounds like the hamster wants out.
Oh god…
Hope these guys are alright, it is a boeing
It's probably nothing, just jump in and come back already guys!
“Low battery” warning.
A people still flying on Boeing planes on purpose?
It might actually be a sonar ping, but why the fuck is it playing through the speakers?
Also it's clearly programmed/recorded, not interference. The pulse is 1 - 1 - 1 - .5 . 1 pattern.
