Space station crew reports metallic sound

Space station crew reports metallic sound

From Journal Sentinel wire reports

Saturday, April 3, 2004

Cape Canaveral, Fla. — The two men aboard the international space station heard a strange metallic sound again Friday, four months after being startled by it the first time.

Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri was talking to flight controllers in Moscow when he heard a loud drumlike noise coming from the instrument panel of the station’s Russian-built living quarters.

Kaleri and astronaut Michael Foale first heard the mystery noise – - described as a flapping sheet of metal — back in late November. Neither the crewmen nor flight controllers were ever able to identify the sound, although engineers suspected space junk may have damaged something on the exterior.

Russian flight controllers told Kaleri that they would try to figure out where the noise was coming from and speculated that perhaps one of the systems inside the station was the source of the problem, rather than something on the outside.

NASA officials, however, said all systems appeared to be operating properly.