Avi Blizovsky
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The two people aboard the International Space Station heard a strange metallic sound again on Friday, four months after such a sound was first heard.
Cosmonaut Alexander Clary spoke to flight controllers in Moscow on Friday and in the middle of his words a voice was heard from the instrument panel of the Russian-made residential section.
Caleri and astronaut Michael Powell first heard the mysterious sound described as the thud of a piece of metal - at the end of November. To this day, none of the crew members nor the flight control have been able to identify the sound, although the engineers suspect that a piece of space junk may have hit the outer wall somewhere.
Kaleri said on Friday morning that the current voice came from about the same place where the voice was first heard. "I had the headphones on, so I didn't hear him clearly, but he sounded like a drum. According to the sound it was something like the bending of a metal sheet" the cosmonaut reported.
Flight control in Moscow told Clary that they would try to assess from the ground where the sound came from, and check if one of the devices inside the station could have caused the problem, and not something outside. NASA officials, however, said that all systems are functioning properly.
"This is very strange," said the manager of the control room in Moscow. "I doubt if it is a coincidence that you hear the same sound coming from the same place."
During a spacewalk in February, Callary and Powell were supposed to inspect the outside of the station in the area where the sound was heard in November, however, Callary's spacesuit overheated and became humid, and the spacewalk had to be cut short, so the two did not have time to examine the area.
The two are about to finish their six-month shift. The replacement team is scheduled to arrive in two and a half weeks.
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