China’s first man in space, Yang Liwei, has described a strange occurrence that happened during his first voyage back in 2003.

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In a recent interview, Liwei describes how he could hear:

Someone knocking the body of the spaceship just as knocking an iron bucket with a wooden hammer.

It neither came from outside nor inside the spaceship.

Obviously Liwei was shocking by this sound and had to peek out of the porthole to check what it was. However, he failed to spot any explanation for the eerie knock.

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Even since landing, he has never been able to figure out what it was. He even tried, and failed, to replicate the sound so that experts could help him identify it, but still with no luck.

This mystery has garnered quite a bit of attention, including from Prof Goh Cher Hiang, an expert in space engineering at the National University of Singapore who said:

The travelling of sound travels requires a medium – be it air particles or water molecules or metal, solid atoms.

His colleague Wee-Seng Soh brings a different explanation to the table, suggesting it could have been:

A result of expansion or contraction of the spaceship, especially since the temperature of the spaceship’s exterior could change considerably within the orbit.

Both very boring theories, I think you’d agree. I’m going to go right ahead and say what everyone’s thinking – this was clearly a space ghost. Liwei had his first ever expedition interrupted by an apparition who was trying to message him from beyond the grave.

It’s so obviously that – or an alien. Both valid and completely realistic theories.