Space Station Crew Hears Metallic Sound

The crew aboard the international space station reported hearing a brief metallic crunching noise, but ground-based experts found no evidence of damage.

“All systems are intact,” said Rob Navias, a space station program spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “All of the data from the U.S. and Russian sides shows nothing out of the ordinary.”

Astronaut Mike Foale told NASA’s Mission Control the noise sounded as if something had struck the aft end of the Russian module that houses the crew’s sleeping quarters, kitchen and lavatory.

Both Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri heard the noise at 2:59 a.m. EST Wednesday as they were completing their breakfast and cleanup period.

“It sounded like a metal tin can kind of being expanded and compressed,” Foale said. “It was a noise that lasted about a second. It sounded like an impact or something.”

The ground-based experts found no evidence of penetration of the station’s airtight hull or the cooling system for the electronic equipment that is responsible for many of the operations, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

Foale also found no problems when he used video cameras on the station’s 57-foot-long robot arm to search for damage in the external areas of the outpost.

Foale and Kaleri continued their normal maintenance and research activities. They planned to observe Thanksgiving with a light work schedule and a meal that included turkey and chicken and rice.

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