The opportunity to fly above the clouds and see the Earth on its entirety is a dream come true for millions of people on Earth. But its not as easy as you think it is. Astronauts have to go through immense training to overcome the G-force and such obstacles in space.
Yang Liwei, born in June 1965 in northeastern Liaoning Province, is China’s first astronaut ( “taikonaut”). On Oct. 16, 2003, Yang became the 241st human worldwide to visit outer space when he stepped out of his re-entry module after a 21-hour flying in space.
Yang made China the third country to independently send an astronaut to space after the US and Russia. He made China proud while flying on board the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. During a recent interview with China Central Television, Yang recalled an experience he encountered during his voyage in space. He described it as: “A non-causal situation I have met in space is a knock that appeared from time to time”. (Xinhua)
“It neither came from outside nor inside the spaceship, but sounded like someone is knocking the body of the spaceship just as knocking an iron bucket with a wooden hammer.” (Xinhua)
The sound made Yang nervous but he wanted to find the source of the sound. He moved closer to the porthole to try and locate the source but he was unable to find anything unusual. Other Chinese astronauts aboard the Shenzhou 6 and 7 spacecraft which flew in 2005 and 2008, respectively, also noted hearing the knocking sound.
Scientists came forward with several possibilities to what could be the reason for the knocking sound. It could have been space debris flying in outer space that came in contact with the spacecraft, which seems highly unlikely. Or the low-temperature environment in space could have subjected the aircraft to expand and contract, causing the noises.
To solve this mystery, upon his return to Earth, he explained this phenomena to the technicians and even demonstrated it by using several instruments. But none of it came close to the actual sound he heard aboard the station.
However, this is not the first ever reported case of hearing strange sounds in space. In May 1969, on their way to the Moon, the Apollo 10 crew heard a mysterious whistling sound. Upon investigation, scientists concluded that the strange sound was produced by radio interference.
These strange phenomenon’s must have a rational explanation, instead of thinking that some sort of alien life form is trying to contact humans by knocking on a spacecraft. While it still feels weird to hear such sounds in space, most of the incidents were only reported by the Chinese spacecrafts, which most experts claim to be an issue with the Shenzhou vehicles.
Here’s a short video on Shenzhou 5 and the first Chinese in space.
Sources: Xinhua, BBC, Mysterious Universe.
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