The noise of a 'hammer hitting an iron bucket' left China's first ever astronaut in space feeling nervous and concerned during his first ever journey into space. Astronaut Yang Liwei made the disclosures in a fresh interview while talking about the bizarre noises while aboard the Shenzhen 5 spaceship during a 21 hour mission back in 2003.
Several other astronauts aboard the Shenzhou 6 and Shenzhou 7 have also stated that they heard a similar, if not the same, banging.
Yang Liwei was abroad the Shenzhou 5 on October 16, 2003 and walked out of the re-entry unit during the 21-hour mission and into the last step – making him the 241st human in space. And even though he should be rejoicing this honor, Liwei is still haunted by what he overheard aboard the craft. He told Xinhua recalling the experience:
A non-causalsituation 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
That mysterious sound made Liwei very tense, but he moved around the ship and nearer to the window to see if he could find its cause. But he found nothing outside the craft that might produce this mysterious sound.
After the successful arrival, Yang Liwei tried to replicate the noises he heard with different instruments - hoping the space agency's experts could crack the puzzle. Though, no one has figured out what might have produced such a noise and Liwei has not heard similar voice ever since.
Astronauts aboard the Chinese Shenzhou 6 and Shenzhou 7 have also described hearing a bizarre banging noise.
Liwie said:
Before entering space, I have told them that the sound is a normal phenomenon, so there is no need to worry