NASA broadcast is interfered with live by a radio signal from an Argentine taxi

2023-04-24 03:48:05

The space agency was following the astronauts’ activities on the International Space Station (ISS) when they heard a driver asking for an address.

Andreas H/Pixabay

A broadcast from Nasa suffered an unusual interference a few days ago by a taxi signal from Argentina. The space agency was following astronauts’ activities on the International Space Station (ISS) when they heard a driver asking for an address. “1-5-0, did you say, from Irigoyen?”, is the message that can be heard in the middle of the live transmission that NASA made, as two Russian astronauts walked outside the ISS to change a radiator. During the broadcast, these Spanish words were attributed to interference from an inadvertent open mic. However, the Argentine journalist Manuel Mazzanti realized when he heard the transmission that it was a voice with an Argentine accent asking for an address on a street named after former president Hipólito Yrigoyen (1852-1933) or former senator and former governor of Buenos Aires Bernardo de Irigoyen (1822-1906). Mazzanti, who dedicates himself to covering space issues in the United States, then posted on social networks with the video of the interfered transmission that went viral.

Last Tuesday, at the time of the interference, the International Space Station was 430 kilometers above Argentine territory, according to the local press. “The band that radio taxis use is UHF. No wonder the Space Station does an amateur radio transmission once a month on that same frequency and that’s why they pick it up. In this case, something was left open when they were making an important spacewalk to change a radiator”, explained science popularizer Esteban Tablón this Sunday to the “LN+” broadcaster. Tablón highlighted that the Space Station, which orbits the Earth several times a day, was at that moment in the early hours of Tuesday “exactly above Buenos Aires”. “There are 430 kilometers in a straight line, without any kind of interference or obstacles. Apparently, the frequency at which they communicate with Earth’s hams has been left open. Then a very Buenos Aires radio taxi appeared on the Space Station in an audio transmission for the whole world, ”he commented.

*With information from EFE