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Chinese astronaut heard strange ‘knocking sound’ on his space capsule

(Picture AFP Getty)
(Picture AFP Getty)

It’s a thought that would chill anyone to the marrow – being in a space capsule, and hearing a strange knocking sound on the metal

A Chinese astronaut revealed he is still haunted by the sound.

The noise – ‘like a hammer hitting an iron bucket’ – terrified China’s first astronaut on board the Shenzhen 5 spaceship in 2003, he said in an interview this week.

Astronaut Yang Liwei said, ‘A situation I have met in space is a knock that appeared from time to time.

‘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’.

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Liwei explored the ship looking for the source of the noise – but found nothing.

Once he was safely back on Earth, Chinese space agency technicians tried to replicate the noise – but couldn’t.

Other Chinese astronauts have also reported hearing strange noises aboard spacecraft.