Posted
4/02/2004 06:48:00 PM
by Douglas
In low-earth orbit, no one can hear you say "what the hell was that?"
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.
"I had the headset on, so I didn't hear it very clearly. But it sounded sort of like a drum. It sounds sort of like a sheet of something being bent," the cosmonaut reported.
That's got to be a creepy feeling. Knowing the only thing between you and vacuum is a creaking piece of sheet metal that was built by the lowest bidder. But, considering the trouble they had on
Mir, this ain't nothing. I hope.