NASA addresses 'Strange Noise' from Boeing Starliner; Confirms no risk to crew, mission
NASA has responded to concerns surrounding an unexplained noise coming from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, currently in space with astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore on board. The noise, detected by Wilmore from one of the spacecraft's speakers, was reported to Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday. The incident gained widespread attention after meteorologist Rob Dale captured and shared an audio clip of the exchange, which quickly went viral.
In a statement released on Monday, NASA assured that the "strange noise" is a "common" occurrence and poses no risk to the crew or the spacecraft. "A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station, has stopped," the space agency confirmed, as reported by USA Today. NASA emphasized that the Starliner remains on track for its planned unmanned return to Earth.
The noise, according to NASA, was the result of feedback from the audio setup connecting the Starliner to the International Space Station. "The audio system of the space station is intricate, enabling the interconnection of numerous spacecraft and modules, and noise and feedback are frequent occurrences," the statement explained.
NASA also noted that the crew has been advised to contact mission control if they notice any unusual sounds from the communication system. The feedback reported by Wilmore, NASA assured, has no technical impact on the crew, the Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner’s scheduled uncrewed undocking from the station, which is set for no earlier than Friday, September 6.
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iPhone lands in temple hundial, everything in offering box goes into god’s account: TN Minister
Chennai, Dec 21: A devotee who has accidently dropped his iPhone into the hundial of a temple here is in a peculiar situation. He wants it back, but the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department politely declined his request, saying it has now become temple property.
Immediately after realising his mistake, the devotee later identified as Dinesh, approached the officials of the Sri Kandaswamy temple, Thiruporur, and pleaded that his iPhone which inadvertently fell into the offering box when he was making a donation be returned to him.
On Friday, after opening the offering box, the temple administration contacted him saying the gadget was found in the hundial and he was free to retrieve only the data from it. However, Dinesh refused to accept and insisted that his phone be returned to him.
When this issue was taken to the notice of the HR & CE Minister P K Sekar Babu on Saturday he replied “anything that is deposited into the offering box, even if it be an arbitrary action, goes into god’s account.”
“As per the practises and tradition at the temples, any offerings made into the hundial directly goes into the account of the deity of that temple. Rules do not permit the administration to return the offerings back to the devotees,” Babu told reporters here.
He would discuss with the department officials to see if there was any possibility to compensate the devotee and accordingly make a decision, the Minister said after inspecting the construction of the Arulmigu Mariamman temple in Madhavaram, here, and the renovation of temple tank belonging to the Arulmigu Kailasanathar temple in Venugopal Nagar, here at an estimated cost of Rs 2.5 crore.
This incident is not the first such one in the state. According to a senior HR & CE official a devotee S Sangeetha from Alappuzha in Kerala unwittingly dropped her 1.75 sovereign gold chain into the hundial of the renowned Sri Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple in Palani in May 2023.
The gold chain fell into the hundial when she removed the Tulasi garland around her neck to make an offering. However, considering her financial background and after confirming through CCTV footages that the chain had fallen by accident, the chairman of the temple board of trustees bought a new gold chain of same value at his personal expense and gave it to her.
The official explained that as per the Installation, Safeguarding and Accounting of Hundial Rules, 1975, none of the offerings made into the hundials can be returned to the owner at any point, as they belonged to the temple.
