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Astronaut's Story Of Creepy Sound Heard From Space Will Make You Stay On Earth

by Hope Schreiber
Reuters

I have seen enough movies set in space to convince me that a person with my weak will and lack of tenacity does not belong on a space shuttle.

While watching "Gravity," all I could think was, "Ugh, just give up already."

While watching "Alien," I only thought, "Sure, I'll give birth to a chestburster with their makeshift cesarean section."

So, when I hear real news of something terrifying happening in space, all I think is, "NOPE! NO THANK YOU! NOT GOING THERE! GOODBYE."

China's first astronaut to go to space, Yang Liwei, left Earth on October 16, 2003.

He spent 21 hours aboard the Shenzhen 5, where he reportedly heard a very strange noise.

No one has been able to determine just what it was, and others on Shenzhen 6 and Shenzhen 7 have also heard it.

There, in the dead cold of space, he heard a knocking sound. Like a "hammer hitting an iron bucket."

While he has been celebrated by his country, he still is haunted by that knocking.

He said,

A non-causal 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.

He said that the knocking made him extremely nervous, and he moved to the porthole to try to spot the cause of it -- but he found nothing.

Since returning to Earth, Yang has tried to recreate the sound with a number of tools and instruments, but nothing is exactly like the knocking he heard in space.

Yang's advice to the next Chinese astronauts heading into the final frontier? He said,

Before entering space, I have told them that the sound is a normal phenomenon, so there is no need to worry.

My nerves would not be calmed.

Quickmeme

Citations: China's first astronaut reveals mysterious knocking on his capsule left him 'spooked' while in orbit (DailyMail.com)