The Boeing Starliner spaceship splashed down on Earth early Saturday morning, leaving behind two test pilots in orbit until next year as NASA was afraid it was too risky for them to return. Starliner parachuted onto New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range, landing just after midnight.
After leaving the International Space Station six hours prior, Starliner touched down at 12:01 a.m. ET via parachute into White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
“We are pleased to see Starliner’s safe return and I am extremely proud of the work our collective team put into this entire flight test,” said Ken Bowersox, assistant administrator of NASA Headquarters in Washington’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
“Even though it was necessary to return the spacecraft uncrewed, NASA and Boeing learned an incredible amount about Starliner in the most extreme environment possible,” he continued. “NASA looks forward to our continued work with the Boeing team to proceed toward certification of Starliner for crew rotation missions to the space station.”
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This is Boeing’s much-awaited launch of astronauts in June after a long delay caused by thruster malfunctions and helium leaks. For several months, due to some technical difficulties, safety was not yet quite specific for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams until a definite cause of malfunction was able to be detected in the spacecraft.
NASA disagreed with Boeing’s claims that Starliner could return safely to Earth with the crew after rigorous testing. It has chosen SpaceX to carry out the mission instead. The SpaceX spaceship will have to stay in orbit until February because it will not launch until the end of this month.
They were initially scheduled to bring Starliner back to Earth by mid-June, a week after the vessel reached space. However, during the space station mission, NASA deemed it too risky to bring them home aboard Starliner due to thruster problems and helium depletion.
The fully autonomous capsule, joined by some retired station gear and blue spacesuits worn by the crew, was undocked after receiving new software updates.
A demo of the crew brought a close to the vessel’s string of delays and mishaps of Starliner.
NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to provide orbital taxi service after the space shuttles were decommissioned over a decade ago. However, Boeing had to try again as its first uncrewed test flight in 2019 was filled with several glitches. Three years later, the do-over turned up even more problems, with the needed repairs coming at nearly $1 billion.
This month’s crew ferry trip by SpaceX will be its tenth flight for NASA since 2020. Only two astronauts will ride along in the Dragon capsule to begin the six-month mission since Wilmore and Williams take up two seats heading home.
Even before it launched in early June from Cape Canaveral, Florida, helium had started to leak from Starliner’s propulsion system. The leak was small and seemed isolated, but after liftoff, the finding of four more followed. Then five thrusters failed; four regained operation, but the problems raised questions for NASA about whether further malfunctions might impair the capability to return from orbit.
Over the summer, Boeing ran several thruster experiments, both in orbit and on the ground, further confirming in its mind that their aeroplane would bring people home safely. NASA then assigned the task of returning the thrusters back to SpaceX-again, scepticism of such a plan.
After un-docking, the flight controllers fired the capsule’s thrusters one final time for a test, but one did not light. According to the engineers, as the thrusters fire more frequently, they become hotter, which forces the protective seals to bulge and restricts propellant flow. None of the parts can be inspected since the thruster piece was jettisoned well before reentry.
Starliner will be relocated to the Kennedy Space Center of NASA.
I want to recognize the Starliner teams’ work to ensure a successful and safe undocking, deorbit, reentry, and landing,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, in a statement. “We will review the data and determine the next steps for the program.”
Steve Stich, head of NASA’s commercial crew program, said earlier in the week that the space agency still wants two competing American firms flying astronauts. Space station is scheduled to be retired from service in 2030 in advance of a deliberate destructive re-entry, but prior to that, NASA believes SpaceX and Boeing could take turns launching astronauts.
