What was the strange ‘music’ recorded by Apollo 10 astronauts in 1969?

23 Feb 2016

The Apollo 10 command module image via NASA

In the same year that humankind landed on the moon for the first time, the team that preceded it – Apollo 10 – recorded strange ‘music’ that was apparently being emitted from the far side of the moon.

We currently live in a world where a fringe minority still genuinely believes that the Earth is flat, so it wouldn’t be terribly surprising to know that there are also people who believe NASA is covering up the existence of ETs living on the far side of the moon.

While we’d be quick to dismiss such claims, the astronauts of the Apollo 10 mission – Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan – did encounter something peculiar.

According to Phys.org, NASA has now officially released the audio of one of the strangest encounters astronauts came across in space, that being the strange ‘music’ recorded as it made its orbit around the moon.

Lasting for about an hour, the astronauts reported the strange sounds that terrified them due to their strangeness.

According to the transcripts released of the audio back in 2008, Young says: “Did you hear that whistling sound, too?”, to which Cernan replies: “Yes, sounds like, you know, outer-space-type music.”

In fact, the three astronauts aboard Apollo 10 were afraid of even mentioning it to ground control as they feared claims of strange space music would see them dropped from future space missions.

So, what cosmic reasons were behind the spooky space music?

According to a NASA engineers, the noise was likely interference caused by two radios in close proximity aboard the lunar and command module.

Ahead of the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong was warned in advance of the sounds, which he later admitted was a good thing: “Had I not been warned about it, it would have scared the hell out of me.”

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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